A HIT-AND-RUN driver killed four foreign cyclists in Tajikistan in what may have been a terrorist act, the Central Asian country’s interior minister said yesterday. The tourists, from the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands, were killed Sunday, Tajik authorities said. Three more, from Switzerland, the Netherlands and France, were injured — and one of them also had a stab wound. Security forces pursuing suspects in the attack killed four, including one as he was resisting arrest, and detained a fifth man, the interior ministry said. “We are looking into all versions — accident, robbery ... including a terrorist act,” Interior Minister Ramazon Rakhimzoda told a briefing. Among the four suspects killed was the owner of the car, which police believe struck the tourists as they were cycling through a rural area 90 km southeast of the capital Dushanbe. The U.S. Embassy indicated that it also considered the incident to be an intentional attack. “We strongly condemn the cruelty of the attackers and recognize that they in no way represent the kindness and hospitality of the Tajik people,” the embassy said in a statement. (SD-Agencies) |