Amid the frustration, speculation and enduring trauma in these past six months since the July 18 2012 suicide bomb terrorist attack on a group of Israeli tourists at Bourgas Airport in Bulgaria, there is the risk that awareness of the victims themselves may slip away among the wider public; so let us remember them first.

In the blast that day, Israelis Itzik Colangi (28), Amir Menashe, (28), Maor Harosh, (25), Elior Price, (26), and Kochava Shriki, (44) were murdered, as was Bulgarian Mustafa Kyosev (36).

There is another name, that remains unknown – that of the bomber himself, or the bomb, if the theory that the explosives were detonated remotely is correct. We have all seen his face, or at least the computer-generated version distributed via Interpol, and that of an alleged accomplice, but the only identities known are the fake ones on documents recovered at the scene.

It was a day of vivid imagery, not only in the swift reactions of Israeli and Bulgarian medical and emergency services, not only in the en masse turnout of Bulgarian state and government leaders at the scene, not only in the shocked faces at terrorism touching Bulgaria for the first time in decades, but also – unfortunately – in the disrespect and unprofessionalism of some sections of Bulgaria’s media that printed photographs that included body parts.

But images fade in the public mind and the story has become a patchy one, as investigations remain behind the scenes, bar the occasional – sometimes contradictory – public statements and the speculation and blame apportioned from some quarters.

In recent days, the chief secretary of Bulg