Archive · 2013 · From the print edition of Friday 16 August 2013, Vol. 21, No. 6,395
Across IradThree traders shot on the Aksay road
Three Boztorgoy cattle traders returning from the Nurzhan feedlots were killed on the Aksay Plateau on Wednesday, in the week of the Kurultai.
TALAS — Three cattle traders of the Boztorgoy clan were shot dead on the road across the Aksay Plateau on Wednesday as they returned from selling cattle at the feedlots of Nurzhan, the United Nations Mission in Irad said yesterday. The killings took place in the week of the Kurultai.
The three men, aged between 30 and 52, were found beside their truck by herders on Wednesday evening. UNMI said the attack bore the marks of the group of hardliners known as the Kamchylar, who oppose trade and water deals with Talas, and to whom about thirty killings have been attributed since 2009. No one has claimed it.
The Boztorgoy blamed Akjele lineages. Sabyrbek Duishön uulu, the Boztorgoy biy, told the Kurultai yesterday that his clan would leave the Iradi Freedom Society unless those responsible were given up. "We sell cattle so our children eat," he said. "If that is treason, let them say so to my face."
Traders in Nurzhan said several Boztorgoy trucks expected at the feedlots this week had turned back. The Gendarmerie said the killings took place inside the Autonomous Tribal Regions, outside its jurisdiction.