Kyrgyz man who stopped border trespassers will be awarded posthumously - presidential resolution
BISHKEK. Jan 24 (Interfax) - Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has sent his condolences to the family of Alexander Barykin, head of the Issyk-Kul region's hunters and anglers society, who was killed in a shootout with border trespassers.
"President Atambayev nominated Barykin for a state award posthumously. He put up armed resistance to persons who illegally crossed the state border, killing two of them, before soldiers arrived from the Ak-Shyirak outpost of the Issyk-Kul border guard unit," the Kyrgyz president's press service told Interfax on Friday.
An operation to neutralize a group of border trespassers was conducted in Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul region on January 23. Eleven suspects were killed in a shootout with Kyrgyz border guards.
"Evidence proving the border trespassers' involvement with extremist organizations was found during the special operation," Raimberdi Duychenbiyev, acting head of the Kyrgyz State Border Guard Service, told the president on Friday, according to the head of state's press service.
"The group of persons suspected of killing Kyrgyz citizen Alexander Barykin, head of the Issyk-Kul region's society of hunters and anglers, refused to surrender to the border guards, prompting a special operation to neutralize them. As a result, 11 people were eliminated," Duyshenbiyev said.
"Personal belongings that were confiscated from these persons suggest that they supported extremist views and crossed into Kyrgyzstan presumably from China," he said.
Their identities are currently being established.
"Atambayev thanked the border guards who took part in this operation and wished a speedy recovery to a serviceman who sustained a minor injury during it," the press service said.
