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Kyrgyz Metals Giant Rejects Blame For Attack On Businessman


Kyrgyz businessman of Afghan origin Gulab Shah Akbar in hospital after a brutal attack in Bishkek
Kyrgyz businessman of Afghan origin Gulab Shah Akbar in hospital after a brutal attack in Bishkek
BISHKEK -- A Kyrgyz businessman says a state-owned company may have been behind an assault that left him hospitalized, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.

Gulab Shah Muhammad Akbar told RFE/RL late on July 28 that two unknown assailants attacked him at around 11 a.m. on July 26 as he entered his apartment building. He was hospitalized with concussion and a broken nose.

Muhammad Akbar did not offer any explanation for the attack. He said he has been involved in exporting metals for several years.

Muhammad Akbar said Temir, a state metals company, is one of Kyrgyzstan's wealthiest state corporations and may have been behind the attack against him.

Temir Director Ulukbek Abdumomunov told RFE/RL that Muhammad Akbar's statement about his company's alleged involvement in the attack is baseless.

Meanwhile, a statement by Said Umar, the leader of the Afghan community in Kyrgyzstan, said Muhammad Akbar, who is of Afghan origin, has a questionable reputation.

He said many Afghans living in Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries and the Middle East have been seeking the repayment of loans they have made to Muhammad Akbar.

"It is a pity that [Muhammad Akbar], who is known as a dubious cheater among Afghans living abroad, is trying to discredit the state company Temir in Kyrgyzstan," Umar wrote in his letter (in Russian here).

Read and watch more in Kyrgyz here and here

Read in Russian here
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