AQTOBE, Kazakhstan -- Four men have been sentenced to jail terms in the northwestern Kazakh city of Aqtobe for religious extremism and armed resistance against police, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
Aqtobe Oblast Court spokeswoman Gulnar Simatova told journalists on October 6 that two of the men were sentenced to life in prison, one to 14 years, and another to six years in jail.
The men were arrested in a special operation conducted by security forces in Aqtobe Oblast on July 2. The operation was in response to an attack on July 1 by an unknown group in which two policemen were killed in the village of Shubarshi in Aqtobe Oblast's Temir district.
The next day, security forces and police came to arrest suspects believed to be involved in the killing of the policemen.
The group resisted arrest and shot one security officer and wounded three others during a shoot-out. The four suspects were eventually arrested.
After that incident, similar shoot-outs between armed men and security forces were reported in other villages in Aqtobe Oblast.
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