Belarusian prosecutors on Thursday urged journalists not to publish unchecked and unofficial information on Monday’s terrorist attack on the Minsk subway.
At least 12 people were killed and over 190 injured after a bomb went off at the Oktyabrskaya metro station, one of the city’s busiest, at rush hour on Monday evening.
Belarusian opposition media reported that a young woman, Marina Shubich, was lying undiscovered for several hours under debris in the Belarusian capital’s subway when President Alexander Lukashenko laid flowers at the site of the tragedy.
“The doctors have been questioned. She was brought to a Minsk hospital at 6:25 p.m. [long before Lukashenko visited the blast site] and was undergoing surgery until 10:10 p.m.,” Deputy Prosecutor General Andrei Shved said.
“All reports that deliberately carried false or unreliable information will be probed. We will summon journalists for interrogation and bring them to account once their guilt is established,” Shved told journalists.
Lukashenko said Wednesday the terrorist attack was solved and called for a crackdown. “Everyone should be prosecuted and questioned, not bearing in mind any democracy, moaning or wailing of foreign martyrs,” he said.
“Not only the authorities have committed this crime, but also the military, police, and even the church,” Lukashenko said. “Find and interrogate them as criminals. There is no forgiveness. They create a negative impact and panic honest people,” the president said, making demands to prevent any panic in the country.
Shved told reporters in Minsk earlier Thursday that in addition to three people who have already admitted their involvement in the attack, the Belarusian police have detained two more suspects.
Belarusian authorities made public on Thursday a recording by a surveillance camera which shows a suspected terrorist putting a bag with a radio-controlled explosive device under a bench on a train platform and activated the bomb after moving away to a safe distance.
According to the Belarusian State Security Committee, the bomb was improvised and was filled with metal objects.
MINSK, April 14 (RIA Novosti)