"The aim of this draft is to improve current legislation on counterterrorism, fight against arms trafficking and migration regulation. Our committee is ready to start work on it and give its opinion," Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security Maulen Ashimbayev said.
On September 1, at the parliament's opening session, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said that due to terrorist threats, the state must resist forces which want to destabilize the country, and called on the lawmakers to take appropriate legislative measures.
On June 5, unidentified armed assailants attacked two gun shops and a military unit in the Kazakh city of Aktobe. In response, the country's authorities announced an anti-terrorist operation. The incident left 25 people killed, including 18 terrorists, who were said to be radical followers of non-conventional religious movements. Following the event, the Kazakh government raised the country's terrorist threat level to "yellow".
The shooting of police officers in the former Kazakh capital of Almaty on July 18, has been described as an act of terrorism by Nazarbayev. Five people died in the attack and another seven were injured.
Kazakhstan remains a popular destination for migrants from elsewhere in Central Asia due to its relative wealth and new immigration restrictions in Russia.
