On April 18, doctors made clear that Mr. Baisalov was hit by a metal bar that caused him with a mild brain concussion. He was assaulted as he was leaving his office across from the Prosecutor General’s Office in the center of Bishkek. By coincidence, several days before the event, Edil Baisalov requested protection from law enforcement agencies, but authorities could not provide him with individual protection because he is not a high-ranking government official and protection was offered for a fee. Currently, the special forces guard the hospital, where Edil Baisalov is resting.

According to Bishkek prosecutor Uchkun Karimov, there are three versions regarding the assassination attempt: first, a connection to the political activities of Edil Baysalov, hooliganism with an attempt to rob, and personal hatred. Nevertheless, he added that there might be another organized criminal groups than that of Rysbek Akmatbaev, which may have wanted to use the rampant criminalized situation to target Akmatbaev’s group. Surprisingly, law enforcement agencies embarked upon working on this case on the basis of article 234 of the Criminal Code, which concerns ‘hooliganism’. The Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society is against it, underlining the “conditions of the assassination attempt and characteristics of the wound”, which shows that it had been planned in advance to kill Edil Baisalov.

Being a person who vigorously contributed to the “Tulip Revolution” last year and who went along with revolutionaries like President Kurmanbek, Edil Baisalov also strongly criticizes the incumbent government. He does not blame criminals for conducting the assassination attempt; rather he blames the government, which legitimized their influence by negotiating with them, thus making them blunt enough to attack prominent people in order to threaten them.

Despite the widespread belief that criminals started surfacing on the political arena, President Kurmanbek Bakiev is not excessively worried in this regard, saying that the level of criminality in Kyrgyzstan does not exceed that of other CIS countries. Nonetheless, he shares the idea that there is a vague “third party” that is willing to take advantage of current situation.

On April 13, U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Marie Yovanovitch visited Baisalov in the hospital. She said that the attack could be considered not only an attack on a person but also an attack on civil society. “It was a reminder for the government to protect civil society”, she stated.

Rysbek Akmatbaev is believed to be responsible for the assault, because he was sidelined twice from entering parliament, even though he earned 79 percent of the votes in the elections. Both of these de-registrations were initiated by the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society and carried out by the Central Election Commission (CEC). Initially, the CEC removed Rysbek Akmatbaev from the list of the candidates because his case in court had not been closed, but the Pervomayskiy Court ruled that he was eligible to run. The second time, on April 11, he was temporarily barred from assuming his position because of the ongoing judicial review of a January murder case in which Rysbek Akmatbaev acted as a defendant.

Parliamentarian Kabay Karabekov, an ardent critic of the government, connects this event to the recent call to Tuigunaly Abdraimov, the CEC chairman, by a man, who introduced himself as Rysbek Akmatbaev and threatened him.

With his notorious background, Akmatbaev’s landslide victory in the by-elections on 9 April took many officials as well as Russian and the U.S. leadership by surprise. Before the by-elections, “Moscow assumed that the government would not allow such an outcome [Akmatbaev’s election victory]”, said Arkady Dubnov, a political analyst. Yovanovitch also showed her concern over the situation. “Journalists are scared and parliamentarians openly admit they are intimidated. Even police officers are intimidated”, said the U.S. ambassador.

The good side of the last incident might be that it strengthened and unified the opposition, including prominent parliamentarians, NGOs, and political activists, which at an April 18 press conference announced that they set an ultimatum, “constitutional reforms or dismissal of the [Bakiyev-Kulov] tandem”. The next march, which anticipates a crowd of 20,000 protestors and a bigger number of civic organizations and political parties, is being planned for April 29 throughout the country. It is scheduled to last 3-4 days until the government shows its intention to carry out demands of the opposition over such issues as constitutional reform, cadre politics, and criminality.