The railway workers who sabotaged the Afrosiyob high-speed train have been sentenced to long prison terms, the State Security Service said.

One of the convicted is a resident of Navoi, a railway foreman, 37, who had worked at the Ziyavuddin Temir Yul Masofasi enterprise of the Bukhara provincial railway junction of Temiryulinfratuzilma. In December 2023, the foreman's position was abolished, and he was transferred to a trackman and guard job at railway barriers.

Reportedly, wanting to express dissatisfaction with the decision, the former foreman plotted a criminal plan together with a colleague living in the Karmana district, 33.

On January 14, 2025, they arrived at the 3872nd kilometer of the section between Ziyavuddin and Navoi stations in Pakhtachi district of the Samarkand province and laid a reinforced concrete sleeper weighing 110 kg across the rails along which the Afrosiyob electric train was soon to pass on the Tashkent-Bukhara route. Then the attackers fled the scene.

After 15-20 minutes, the Afrosiyob high-speed train, traveling at a speed of 159 km/h with 148 passengers on board, collided with a reinforced concrete sleeper, with the chassis of the train severely damaged.

As previously reported by Uzbekistan Railways, thanks to the professionalism of the drivers, serious consequences were avoided, and no one was hurt.

Operation and investigation by the officers of the State Security Service Department for the Navoi Province together with other law enforcement agencies, the persons involved were detained. A criminal case was opened against them under the Sabotage of the Criminal Code.

The Navbakhor District Criminal Court found the offenders guilty of sabotage and sentenced one of them to 13 years in prison, and the other to 12 years.

Since the sabotage caused damage to the Afrosiyob train in the amount of 260 million soums, this amount was collected in favor of the state.