Archive · 2016 · From the print edition of Monday 16 May 2016, Vol. 24, No. 7,255
NewsFive killed in attack on gas survey team near Merke
Four NurGaz seismic surveyors and their Gendarmerie driver were shot on Saturday on a disputed stretch of the line north of Merke. A whip was left on their car.
NURZHAN — Four seismic surveyors working for NurGaz and the Gendarmerie driver assigned to their team were shot dead on Saturday afternoon on a disputed stretch of the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line north of Merke, the Gendarmerie said yesterday.
The team had been laying survey lines for gas exploration under the steppe. Their bodies were found beside their vehicle by a Gendarmerie patrol in the evening. Investigators said a horse whip had been left on the bonnet of the car, which they took to be the sign of the hardliners known as the Kamchylar, who oppose gas exploration on land they consider tribal. No one has claimed the attack.
NurGaz said it had suspended all survey work on the Moiynkum steppe "until the safety of our people can be guaranteed". The company named none of the dead, who were aged between 26 and 49, and said their families had been informed.
In the steppe camps the killings were condemned. Sabyrbek Duishön uulu, the Boztorgoy biy, whose elders have argued for royalties on the gas, called the shooting "murder of our income". The Gendarmerie said it had begun searches in villages near the line. The United Nations Mission in Irad urged "restraint on all sides".