Kazakhstan to spend additional $1.3 billion on countering religious extremism

Kazakhstan will spend additional 196 billion tenge ($1.3 billion) on countering religious extremism, Tengrinews.kz reports citing head of the inter-authority work group on development of the state program for countering religious extremism and terrorism Nurdaulet Suindikov. “In general, the plan is to allocate over 196 billion tenge for implementation of the program: 144 billion tenge ($960 million) from the state budget and 52 billion tenge ($347 million) from local budgets. These are just the additional funds. Many actions will be taken at the cost of the guaranteed state programs. In this relation, the actual spending on this program exceeds the above amounts,” Suindikov said presenting the draft state program for countering religious extremism and terrorism. He noted that the program was aimed at ensuring security for people, society and the state by preventing manifestations of religious extremism and terrorit threats. By Renat Tashkinbayev