Manifestations of terrorism in Kazakhstan have no serious ideological foundation - analyst
ASTANA. July 19 (Interfax) - Mainly scattered unrelated radical cells operate in Kazakhstan, Director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS) Yerlan Karin said.
"Concerning the developments in Almaty, it must be said that especially as they took place after the developments in Aktobe that naturally everyone sees the impact of one wave of radicalization in them. Nevertheless, I must say that there is no serious national ideological foundation for the manifestations of terrorism in Kazakhstan," Karin said at a Tuesday press conference in Astana.
He said that so far Kazakhstan has been dealing with scattered radical cells.
"Most often the radical cells in Kazakhstan constitute various religious communities and groups crossed with the criminal community. The operations of such cells or individuals are no less dangerous than the operations of organized groups because it is hard to predict their actions," Karin said.
KazISS has analyzed all criminal cases launched on charges of terrorism in 2003-2013, and examined the operations of 17-19 various groups and the profiles of 227 people involved in terrorism or extremism in one way or another, he said.
"Most of the groups that used to operate in Kazakhstan held some extreme religious views and engaged mainly in regular crimes - pillage, robbery, racketeering and so on. This is the peculiarity of the manifestations of radicalism in Kazakhstan," Karin said.
On Monday an ex-convict, a Salafi follower, attacked the building of the police and National Security Committee departments in Almaty. Five people, including three police officers, were killed in the shootout and eight people wounded, including six policemen, and hospitalized. On Tuesday, another policeman wounded in the shootout died at hospital in Almaty. The offender was wounded and arrested.
A red level of terrorist threat was declared in the city which was changed to the moderate yellow level by Monday evening. The yellow level of terrorist threat has been in force in Kazakhstan since the terror attack in Aktobe.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called the attacks in Almaty an act of terrorism.