Policeman killed by suicide bomb attack in Tajikistan

A SUICIDE car bomb blast tore through police offices in Tajikistan's second-largest city yesterday, killing one policeman and injuring 25 people, local officials said.

Tajikistan's deputy interior minister Sharif Nazarov said a car filled with explosives hit the offices of the police organised-crime division in Khujand at 8am.

Ministry chief of staff Takhir Normatov confirmed one policeman was killed.

He said the shattered ruins of the car had the remains of at least two people inside it.

The car had been driven into the compound's gates as another vehicle was leaving, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing. But local news reports said suspicion was falling on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group with al-Qaeda ties that seeks to establish an Islamic state in the former Soviet republics of central Asia.

Tajikistan is an impoverished country which is plagued by crime. The country borders on northern Afghanistan and is one of the main trade routes to the West for smuggled Afghan opium and heroin.