Explosion breaks windows at Tajik Supreme Court

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, June 16 (Reuters) An explosion broke windows and damaged a fence at the Supreme Court building in the capital of Tajikistan, the city's chief prosecutor said today.

''We believe the explosion was aimed at intimidation,'' Kurbonali Mukhabbatov told reporters at the scene. He suggested the blast was a terrorist attack. No one was hurt.

Tajikistan, a Central Asian Muslim nation of seven million bordering Afghanistan, remains volatile and flooded with weapons after a 1992-97 civil war between Islamist guerrillas and the secular government that killed more than 100,000.

Tajikistan has been relatively calm since a peace deal. But its economy is ruined, and poverty and drug trafficking from neighbouring Afghanistan have fuelled discontent.

Two blasts rocked the Emergencies Ministry building in January and June of 2005. The government blamed the attack on a group known as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

Exactly one year ago, on June 16, 2006, three small explosions occurred in different places of the capital but no one was hurt.

REUTERS GT RN2229