DUSHANBE - President Emomali Rakhmonov (44) of Tajikistan was among 49 people injured yesterday when a lone assailant hurled a hand grenade at him and his entourage in the northern town of Khodzhent. A presidential spokesman, Mr Zafar Saidov, said Mr Rakhmonov's life was not in danger and he was treated in the Leninabad district hospital for a leg injury. Mr Saidov said a young man and an elderly woman died of their injuries after the attack at 10.30 a.m.
The Tajik deputy prime minister, Mr Abdurakhmon Azimov, said the injured included Mr Rakhmonov's chief bodyguard, the head of the Leninabad district administration and his deputy and the district security chief. The assassination attempt was a further blow to stability in the impoverished former Soviet Central Asian republic, where government troops have been battling Islamic rebels since Mr Rakhmonov seized power in December 1992 from an Islamic democratic coalition.