Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Deputy Chairman of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan Ruslan Seisembayev said at the opening of the 40th meeting of the SCO RATS Council that two impending terrorist attacks were prevented by security forces in Kazakhstan, NUR.KZ correspondent reports.

According to him, at least two terrorist attacks are prevented every year in Kazakhstan. “Only this year, at an early stage of preparation, attempts to detonate an improvised explosive device in the mausoleum of Khoja Akhmet Yasawi in Turkestan, as well as an armed attack in crowded places in Astana, were thwarted,” the speaker noted.

In general, he said, over the past three years, at least 80 high-profile terrorist attacks have been committed in the SCO states. However, this year there has been a sharp increase. If in 2022 there were 18 terrorist attacks, in 2023 there are already 47.

“More than 400 civilians died at the hands of terrorists, and about 940 people were injured. To suppress violent actions, security forces and law enforcement agencies carried out over 300 high-profile anti-terrorist operations. 1,600 terrorists and their accomplices were detained. About 60 criminals who resisted the authorities were eliminated,” summed up Ruslan Seisembayev.

Let us recall that in May, the Chairman of the National Security Committee, Ermek Sagimbayev, reported to the President that the department’s units had prevented a number of terrorist crimes, including a terrorist attack using an improvised explosive device in one of the crowded places. At the end of August, he informed the head of state about the neutralization of a radical group, whose members were planning to carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of Kazakhstan.

7 pre-trial investigations into terrorist crimes have been launched, 3 extremists have been convicted. According to information on the UNESCO website, the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in the city of Yasy (now Turkestan) was built during the reign of Timur (Tamerlane) from 1389 to 1405. In constructing this partially unfinished building, Persian architects used a number of innovative architectural and construction solutions that were later used in the construction of Samarkand, the capital of the Timurid Empire.

Today the mausoleum is one of the most significant and well-preserved structures of that time.