Serbian Daily Claims Kumanovo Shooting Staged by Former Security Chief

The former Director of Macedonia's Administration for Security and Counterintelligence (UBK) Saso Mijalkov was actively involved in the staging of the terrorist attack in Kumanovo.

This is claimed by the Serbian daily Blic, based on information of the Serbian security services, BGNES news agency reports.

Mijalkov, who is a cousin of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, has often been considered as the most powerful man in Macedonia for nearly a decade.

The former security chief was in control of the most influential politicians and criminals from Albania and the region.

According to the reports, the aim of the attack in Kumanovo was to spur an inter-ethnic conflict in order to divert the attention away from the opposition protests and consolidate the support for the government.

However the things got out of control and the planned ethnic incident turned into a terrorist attack.

The opposition SDSM leader Zoran Zaev has revealed a series of controversial wiretapped conversations, accusing the government and calling for its resignation and that of PM Gruevski.

This has been accompanied by a series of protests and a large anti-government demonstration has been scheduled to take place on May 17.

According to sources within Serbia's security forces, Mijalkov was in direct contact with the organisers of the attack.

Blic claims that after the incidents in Gosince and Kumanovo, another attack was being planned to take place in Presevo in Southeast Serbia, followed by further ones in Montenegro and again in Macedonia.

Macedonian opposition, police and military experts in Skopje claim that the Kumanovo shooting, which claimed the lives of eight policemen, was staged by the government of PM Gruevski.

Three days...