Counteracting terrorism issues are topical on the eve of the SCO Summit in Ufa

UFA, 17 June 2015. /Bashinform News Agency, Arina Rakhimkulova/. On the eve of the meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Ufa, special responsibility is laid on anti-terrorist commissions and emergency headquarters to ensure coordination of this work. This was stated by the Chairman of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, director of the Russian FSB Alexander Bortnikov at a joint meeting of the NAC and the Federal Emergency Headquarters.

The participants discussed the issues of anti-terrorist commissions and emergency headquarters organization in the regions of the Volga Federal District in the area of protection of crowded places and venues, where the important international events will be carried out.

In his speech, the NAC Chairman drew attention to the fact that combating terrorism and extremism is one of the priorities of the governmental bodies in the Volga Federal District, both at the regional and municipal levels. During the period from 2014 to the present time as a result of active preventive work it was managed to prevent any act of terrorism and avert five terrorist crimes in the region.

In February, 2015 in Ufa, and in a number of other settlements in Bashkortostan 23 members of the «Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami» cell were detained. In October last year, two supporters of the international terrorist organization «Islamic State», who planned a terrorist act on the chemical weapons storage and destruction facility in the Kirov region, were prosecuted and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison. In 2014, law enforcement bodies revealed seven caches of weapons and ammunition in the region. Seven improvised explosive devices, 8.5 kg of explosives, 148 firearms, 258 grenades, more than 16,000 rounds of ammunition were withdrawn from illegal circulation.

Noting the generally positive results of anti-terrorist activities in the region, Alexander Bortnikov emphasized the urgency of security tasks while international events in the cities of the Volga Federal District this summer - meetings of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Ufa, the European Championships in Athletics in Cheboksary, competition in the framework of the World Championship FINA in Kazan.

In addition, issues of practical implementation of the Committee's decisions on measures to combat illicit trafficking of arms, ammunition and explosives, as well as to provide anti-terrorist protection of critical and potentially dangerous objects were discussed at the meeting.