Photo: Democratic Movement–United Georgia party’s website.

The Interior Ministry said “participants” of protest rally threw a hand-grenade and blew up a police car late on March 13.

“On March 13, after the rally, which was held by the opposition on the Rustaveli Avenue, participants of the rally threw a hand-grenade at a car of Security Police Department [SPD] parked at the SPD’s Old Tbilisi district office; as a result, the car was completely destroyed and burnt. As a result of examination, carried out by the forensic service, it has been ascertained that an RGD-type hand-grenade was used. The Interior Ministry is question eyewitnesses,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement on March 14.

Security Police Department is a legal entity under the Interior Ministry, which provides security service to both private firms and individuals, as well as to the state agencies.

An office of the opposition Democratic Movement–United Georgia, a party led by former parliamentary speaker, Nino Burjanadze, is located close to the incident site on the Tabukashvili street.

The party released a statement earlier on March 14 saying that the police car “exploded close to the party office at about 11:30pm [on March 13]; no one was injured.”

“The explosion took place about five or ten minutes after the party’s youth wing activists returned back to the office from ‘the protest concert’ held on Rike,” Democratic Movement–United Georgia said in the statement. “We hope that the explosion does not aim at political provocation and that the investigation will find out the reasons of the explosion.”

In the evening of March 13, an open-air “protest concert,” organized by a so called “protest TV” was held on Rike. Protesters – estimated numbers varied from 5,000 to 10,000 – were listening for about two hours to opposition activist and singer Giorgi Gachechiladze, with nickname Ucnobi (Unknown). After the show protesters marched towards the Parliament on the Rustaveli Avenue and then dispersed.