Two conscript sailors whose deaths were rumored on social media after the Caspian tragedy are alive and continue their service. Kazakhstan's Ministry of Defense stated that during the exercises they were performing tasks on shore and are currently at their military unit, infohub.kz reports.
The sailors in question are conscripts Akhmetov and Magauiya. The defense ministry clarified where these servicemen were during the September 24 tragedy.
"Conscript sailors Akhmetov A.A. and Magauiya Ә.А. were part of a group of servicemen performing training tasks on shore. Currently, these servicemen are at the military unit and are serving according to the daily routine," the Ministry of Defense said.
The ministry urged citizens not to spread unverified information and to rely only on official sources.
The statement came amid social media discussions of lists of servicemen who users claim were involved in the September 24 exercises.
In particular, a Threads user posted a photo of a list and pointed out an alleged discrepancy in the marks next to the servicemen's names.
"I don't know if I'll be forced to delete this post, but I'll write it. This is a list of servicemen who were on the boat on September 24. At first glance, nothing unusual, but in the list, Gumarov Mansur is marked as '200', while for Akzhaiyk and Olzhas it says 'unknown'. However, on September 24, the bodies of Akzhaiyk and Olzhas were found and their deaths became known, whereas Mansur was found only on September 25 at around 09:15. The question arises: how was Mansur's death, whose body was found later, known, while the status of Akzhaiyk and Olzhas, found a day earlier, remained unknown?" the author of the post wrote.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that police punished the authors of fakes about the tragedy with servicemen on the Caspian.
Recall that on September 24, in the Mangystau region, during exercises, 17 servicemen were swept into the Caspian Sea, 14 of whom died. The circumstances of the tragedy are being investigated by a separate government commission led by Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that five officers of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Defense were detained in the case of the sailors' deaths. The criminal case, initiated under articles on negligence and violation of navigation rules, is under special control of the Prosecutor General's Office.
September 25 was declared a day of national mourning.
On September 27, Kazakhstan's President Qasym-Jomart Toqaev posthumously awarded the deceased sailors with the Orders of "Aibyn" II degree named after Bauyrzhan Momyshuly and "Aibyn" III degree named after Rakhimzhan Koshkarbayev. The head of state awarded three surviving servicemen with the medal "For Courage" (Erligi Ushin).