Kazakhstan says nearly 8,000 detained over last week's unrest

“As of January 10, 7939 people were delivered to the police. 207 people were detained in two markets in Almaty during the operation with the participation of servicemen of the National Guard and special forces,” the ministry said.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's office said in a statement that a substantial number of foreign nationals were among the detainees.

At a meeting of the emergency response headquarters, Tokayev instructed to continue restoring public order and security in the country, as well as strengthen information support for this work.

More than 160 people were killed in Kazakhstan after the violent demonstrations broke out last week following a fuel price hike in the Central Asia’s largest country.

According to the Interior Ministry, more than 1,300 security personnel were injured while protecting public order.

Property damage was estimated at around 175 million euros after the deadly violence, according to initial estimates.

At least 100 businesses and banks were attacked and looted and about 400 vehicles destroyed during the deadly protests.

In response, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency in the Mangystau Region and Almaty, effective from 5 January 2022. The Mamin Cabinet resigned the same day. The state of emergency was shortly extended to the whole country.

In response to Tokayev's request, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – a military alliance of Russia and its allied states that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan itself – agreed to deploy troops in Kazakhstan. The aim was declared to be peacekeeping. The local police reported that “dozens of attackers were liquidated”, while former President Nazarbayev was removed as the Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan.

As a concession, President Tokayev said that the vehicle fuel price caps of 50 tenge per litre had been restored for 6 months. On Friday, he said in a statement, “Constitutional order has largely been restored in all regions of the country.”

He also announced that he had ordered troops to use deadly force against protesters, authorizing instructions to “shoot to kill” without warning at anyone demonstrating, calling protesters “bandits and terrorists” and saying that the use of force would continue to “destroy the protests”. (ILKHA)