Taiyrov shot at his gate; one rider killed at Qara-Chik

Kylych Taiyrov, the natural resources minister of the Democratic Republic of Irad who was acquitted of treason over the Bill of Sale in May last year, was shot dead at the gate of his house in Alatau Heights, on the edge of Talas, on Saturday evening. He was 56.

The Gendarmerie said two young men on horseback shot him as he came out to his car at about seven o'clock, and rode south. Shortly before midnight Gendarmerie officers at the Qara-Chik checkpoint shot dead one of them, Chotbai Kanat uulu, 22, of the Karakoyun clan, who they said had refused to stop. The other, named as Syrgak Bakytbek uulu, also 22 and also Karakoyun, crossed the line into the tribal regions.

“The verdict the court did not give”

Both men, the Gendarmerie said, rode under the banner of the Kamchylar. On Sunday Doolot Sartbai uulu, the banner's best-known voice, called the killing “the verdict the court did not give”. Bektur Zhumabek uulu, spokesman of the clan councils, condemned it and said the Kamchylar “do not speak for the clans”.

After his acquittal Mr. Taiyrov stayed in Talas, saying that he had nothing to hide. His name was on none of the partition drafts, and the court held that concession shares standing in the names of companies registered to his relatives in Almaty and Cyprus proved nothing against him. Front veterans have never accepted the verdict. Outside the court last year they chanted: “They shot the soldier and freed the bookkeeper.”

Questions

The Times has questions that the Gendarmerie has not answered. How did two herders from the Karakoyun camps know where Mr. Taiyrov lived, and at what hour he went out to his car? And why was the one man who could have told investigators who sent them shot at the checkpoint rather than arrested? There is no extradition across the Qara-Chik line. The man who could answer is now beyond it.