Kazakhstan says 164 people have been killed during the unrest
Russia’s Sputnik news agency quoted the health ministry as saying on Sunday that a total of 164 people, including two children, were killed in violent unrest in Kazakhstan last week.
Demonstrations against the hike in fuel prices began a week ago before exploding into widespread protests against the government.
The ministry said 103 people had died in Kazakhstan’s main city of Almaty, where the most violence took place.
The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg says there are clear signs in the capital Nursultan that security has been tightened and the entrance to the city’s presidential palace has been closed.
There is a growing suggestion, our correspondent says, that the recent violence is linked to a power struggle within Kazakhstan’s ruling elite.
Around 103 people were reportedly killed in the violence in the main city of Almaty.
Security forces said they killed rioters in Almaty while trying to restore order and protesters tried to take control of the city’s police stations.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that “20,000 bandits” had attacked Almaty and asked security forces to “shoot without warning”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized the presidential directive on Sunday. “The shoot-to-kill order, as far as it exists, is wrong and should be rescinded,” he told ABC News ‘This Week’.
He said the US was also seeking an explanation from the Kazakh president as to why he had requested the presence of Russian troops.
In another development, neighboring Kyrgyzstan lodged a protest with the Kazakh ambassador over the detention of a Kyrgyz jazz musician in Kazakhstan, after footage surfaced showing him in custody, brutally beaten.
Kazakh authorities accused Vikram Ruzakhunov of participating in the protests and paraded him on state television.
On Saturday, Kazakh officials said the country’s former intelligence chief Karim Masimov had been arrested on suspicion of treason. He did not provide any other details.
The presidential office said on Sunday that two of Massimov’s former deputies had also been removed from their posts.
Marat Osipov and Daulet Ergozhin served as deputy heads of the country’s powerful National Security Committee before their removal. Mr Tokayev’s office has not yet publicly stated the reason for the dismissal.
Kazakhstan says 164 people have been killed during the unrest
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by News East India staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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