ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said that the terrorists who carried out the recent attacks in the northwestern Kazakh city of Aktobe “received instructions from abroad”.
Dozens of gunmen carried out the attacks in Aktobe on June 5, prompting a counterterrorism operation and leaving a growing death toll of more than 20 dead, including attackers, according to the latest reports.
In his statement posted on the president’s official website on June 8, Nazarbayev said that “the terrorist act was organized by adherents to radical pseudo-religious movements” and “they received instructions from abroad”.
“We all know that the so-called ‘color revolutions’ have different methods and start from farfetched protest meetings, murders, and desire to seize power. Such signs have appeared in our country as well,” Nazarbayev said.
He called on the people of Kazakhstan and all political and public forces to unite and show their ability to protect peace, stability and friendship between all the Kazakhstanis.
There have been no credible claims of responsibility for the Aktobe attacks, which targeted two gun shops and a National Guard base and have left the country in a state of high alert, with several attackers still at large.
The Interior Ministry told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service on June 8 that 13 suspected attackers were killed and four of them injured, while six remain on the run. Nine have been arrested, according to the ministry.
Kazakh police spokesman Almas Sadubaev has said the attackers are suspected to be followers of “nontraditional religious movements,” a term often used in Central Asia to describe Islamic extremist groups.
