ASTANA. Sept 5 (Interfax) - The terrorist group members recently detained in the Almaty region in Kazakhstan planned hijackings of airplanes and attacks on security forces, Kazakhstan's National Security Committee, the KNB, said in materials it distributed during its briefing conference on Monday.
"To attract the largest possible [level of] attention, they [the members of the group detained in the Almaty region] were considering some options of terror attacks in places of mass concentration of people. Besides, they conducted reconnaissance of Taldykorgan Airport, studying the possibility of hijacking a civil or military airplane to carry out a high-profile terror attack analogous with the attacks on September 11, 2001 in the U.S.," the KNB said.
This February, 5 members of this group were detained in the Kazakh capital city of Astana, and were subsequently convicted of involvement in terrorist activities, it said.
The detainees are nationals of Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
"Another cell that included four nationals of Central Asian countries was neutralized in Moscow by our Russian partners. It is determined that the criminals planned to carry out terror attacks in Moscow during the Victory Day celebrations," the KNB said.