Thirteen people are dead and hundreds are injured after the bombing of a Minsk Metro station in Minsk, Belarus on Monday evening, 11 April 2011.

Witnesses reported that the explosion happened just after a train entered the Oktyabrskaya station at about 1555 UTC (GMT).

Two suspects have since confessed to the deadly bombing, but in a televised statement, President Alexander Lukashenko said the suspects admitted taking part in the attack but said authorities still did not know who ordered the bombing.

Lukashenko has asked the prosecutor general to interrogate leading opposition figures in connection with the blast "...regardless of democracy, and cries and wailing of foreign sufferers..."

"Maybe those politicians from the fifth column will open their cards and show who ordered it."

 - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko

President Lukashenko, who has run the former Soviet nation with an iron fist for nearly 17 years and has been called "Europe’s last dictator", had already launched a massive crackdown on opposition members and independent media in Belarus arresting hundreds of dissidents - including seven of the nine presidential candidates - after tens of thousands protested the presidential election in December.

President Lukashenko was declared the overwhelming winner of that vote, which international observers described as "...rigged..."

Opposition leaders have already voiced fears that authorities will use the subway bombing as a new excuse to persecute those who are pressing for democratic reforms .

Story Courtesy: Wikinews
Photo Credit: Metro station Oktyabrskaya in Minsk, Belarus
Photographer: Redline

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