Last Updated: Friday, 13 December 2013, 13:07 GMT  Fighting
Terrorism, Kazak-Style  Publisher Institute for War and Peace
Reporting Publication Date 26 July 2011 Cite as Institute for
War and Peace Reporting, Fighting Terrorism, Kazak-Style, 26
July 2011, available at: [accessed 13 December 2013]  Clashes
between police and armed men at the beginning of July and
Kazakstan's first ever suicide bombing in May have raised the
spectre of an Islamic militant threat. IWPR Central Asia editor
Saule Mukhametrakhimova explains how the authorities are
handling the emergence of Muslim extremism in the west of the
country.  There has been a sudden upsurge in violence in western
Kazakstan – does this mean Islamic groups are becoming more
militant?  Recent developments do suggest that radical Islamic
ideas have taken hold among some people, who are prepared to use
violence as a form of protest against the authorities.  When a
man blew himself up at the offices of the National Security
Committee in Aktobe in mid-May, many j