Blast in Viciebsk: No Suspects, No Arrested, 60 Questioned

No one is currently suspected of detonating a homemade explosive device near the regional office of the Committee for State Security (KGB) in Viciebsk on November 11, Paviel Traulka, spokesman for the Investigative Committee, BelaPAN informs.

According to Traulka, more than 60 people have been questioned in connection with the explosion. The one person who was arrested and held in custody as a suspect has been released following an inquiry, he said.

The KGB press office said on Monday that three people had been arrested after the explosion on the basis of findings of the investigation and eyewitness accounts. According to the press office, one of them, a person with visible signs of a mental illness, had earlier phoned the KGB office and made offensive remarks about Belarusian authorities.

Experts currently work to identify the substance that was used in the bomb and establish how it was detonated, Traulka said.

The KGB press office initially reported that the perpetrators had set the bomb on fire to detonate it.

The “primitive homemade pyrotechnic device” went off at 6:48 PM, breaking the glass of two windows. According to preliminary findings, the bomb was hidden inside a metal can of between 0.25 and 0.33 liters and consisted of a cardboard or plastic tube packed with between 50 and 70 grams of a pyrotechnic mixture. The bomb did not contain nails, metal balls or any other dangerous objects.

Criminal proceedings were instituted in connection with the incident under Part Three of the Criminal Code's Article 339, which penalizes "especially malicious hooliganism" and provides for a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

The explosion near the Viciebsk KGB headquarter was one link in a chain of strange events.

On November 5, there was an explosion at the Belarus–Poland border there was an explosion. On November 6 some persons attacked the embassy of Lithuania in Minsk with Molotov cocktails. On November 8, two young men were detained in Minsk, one of them was charged with high treason.

On November 9, Lukashenka fired KGB chief Vadzim Zajcau. Yet, he was replaced not with the deputy chief, but with the Chairperson of the Security Council. The reason for the dismissal was the suicide of KGB General Kazak, which had been denied for long.

On November 11, the self-made bomb near the KGB in Viciebsk.

And finally, Amendments to regulations against terrorism and extremism took effect in Belarus on November 12.

The explosion in Viciebsk was not big, but many were detained in the city. The detainees report that mainly males in black jackets and hoods were detained.

Some compare this explosion with the explosion of 2006 in Viciebsk — which according to the court was set by executed Kanavalau and Kavaliou.

However, the blast in 2005 occurred in public place and, and the bomb was filled by small metal particles.

The incident in Viciebsk remind a symbolic assault on KGB in Babrujsk when anarchists Vaskovich, Prakapienka and Syramalotau thrown several Molotov cocktails.

The sequence of small episodes of the last week seems as an attempt to cause panic within the society.

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