Every day 500 people come to Kovači, we cannot know who the vandal is among them!

Thanks to video surveillance and the quick reaction of physical security, the vandal who desecrated the tombstone of the first president of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović, was caught in just a few minutes, confirmed Nurudin Džiho, director of the Memorial Fund, which maintains the Kovači martyrs' cemetery in Sarajevo, for the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

According to Džiho, this is an incomprehensible and terrible act of desecrating someone's tombstone, but he says there is no way to completely prevent such events, as it is an open cemetery.

- The Kovači martyrs' cemetery is open. On average, more than 500 people enter and pass through daily, a large number of tourists. Many come, they want to see Alija Izetbegović's grave, recite Fatiha, leave flowers or pay their respects. We have physical security until 4 PM every day and 24-hour monitoring and security. But you cannot prevent people from approaching the grave – says Džiho.

According to him, as soon as security saw the person behaving unusually, they reacted, called the police, who caught the vandal fleeing on a scooter within 20 minutes.

- He is known to the police as a drug addict. He wrote, carved the word Kašikara, which is his nickname, on the tombstone with a knife. Basically, he signed the tombstone. We will polish it, and there is no major damage, but I don't understand people who do this – says Džiho.

According to police information, the arrested person with the initials N. A. will face criminal proceedings. The media state that it is Nedžad Alihović, and that he was released from custody today, NAP reports.

Džiho says that after the terrorist attack on the cemetery a few years ago, everything possible and necessary was done to secure the cemetery and Alija Izetbegović's grave.