Bishkek: Kyrgyzstan on Saturday said it had foiled an attempted bomb attack in Bishkek after discovering a jeep packed with explosives parked outside the capital`s police headquarters.
The AKIpress news agency quoted the security service press office as saying that the homemade explosives of 7-10 kilogrammes of TNT equivalent were found in a Landrover Discovery vehicle.
It said that investigators were working on the assumption that the car was the same vehicle reported to have been stolen from a US citizen by a group of armed bandits on Friday night.
The American also had 100,000 soms (USD 2,000) stolen from him and the criminals later vanished.
News reports said that sappers from the Kyrgyz security service (GKNB) had successfully defused the explosives, made up of components including a gas balloon, explosive powder and electric wires linked up to a mobile phone.
The Central Asian state has been wracked by unrest in 2010 which saw the ousting of ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev in a bloody uprising and ethnic rioting in the south that left hundreds dead.
Bureau Report
