TASHKENT, 30 March 2004 — Two suicide bombings, attacks on police and an explosion at an alleged terrorist bomb-making factory in Uzbekistan killed 19 people including the bombers and injured 26, the Central Asian country’s prosecutor-general said yesterday.

The suicide bombings were the first ever reported in Uzbekistan, a staunch ally of the US-led anti-terror campaign in neighboring Afghanistan.

Prosecutor-General Rashid Kadyrov said the events began Sunday night with an explosion that killed 10 people at a house being used by extremists in the central province of Bukhara.

There were also two attacks on police Sunday night and early yesterday, killing three policemen, and two suicide bombings near the Chorsu Bazaar in Tashkent’s Old City, which killed three policemen and a child, he said. Kadyrov said the attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists, singling out the banned Hizb Al-Tahrir group.

“A preliminary investigation shows all the events are interconnected and aimed at destabilization of the country,” Kadyrov said.

President Islam Karimov said the attacks had been planned at least six months in advance, and had been originally set to take place before the Central Asian new year holiday Navruz, which falls on March 21. The planning and money required to carry out such attacks also indicates it had outside support, he said.

“As the president I promise all measures will be taken to stop such terrorist acts,” Karimov said on state TV in a Russian translation of remarks in Uzbek, adding that citizens should remain alert.

Kadyrov said one person had been arrested and that authorities were searching for other suspects, but declined to say how many people might have been involved in the attacks.

The Tashkent market blasts were set off by female suicide bombers, outside a children’s store and at a bus stop, Kadyrov said.

He said the tactic of suicide bombings was previously unknown to Uzbekistan and indicated foreign involvement in the attacks. “The character and method of this act is not common to our people. It was probably exported from abroad,” he said.

Kadyrov said the explosions in Bukhara happened at a house that extremists had been using as a bomb-making factory.