ASTANA, July 22. /TASS/. Terrorism is the main threat to Kazakhstan’s security, the country’s Prosecutor General Zhakip Asanov said on Friday.
"The security forces are focused on the identification and neutralization of terrorists. We previously feared terrorists from the outside. Now we are facing threats within the country," he said at a meeting of the Prosecutor’s Office collegium that discussed the results of the work over the first six months of the year.
According to Asanov, the role of the policemen who are the first to face the attack is increasing in these conditions. According to him, in the last five years alone, 144 police officers were killed in the country in the line on duty.
The prosecutor general said that the country’s law enforcement system is capable of coping with the terrorist and other threats, ensuring security of Kazakhstan. "We know what to do to protect the citizens, society and the state", he said.
On Monday, July 18, five people died and another nine were wounded in an armed attack at the Almaty Interior Ministry and National Security Committee departments, Kalmukhanbet Kasymov, Kazakhstan’s minister of internal affairs, told journalists.
The red terror alert was declared in the city, security forces conducted an operation to arrest the persons involved in the crime. The attacker was a 27-year-old man twice convicted for robbery with violence and illegal acquisition and possession of firearms.