Security forces took all regions ‘under protection’
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Friday said that order had been mostly restored in the country after days of unprecedented violence that saw a Moscow-led military alliance send troops to help quell unrest.
The interior ministry said security forces had taken all the country’s regions “under increased protection” and that 26 “armed criminals” had been killed and 18 wounded in the unrest.
“The constitutional order has been mainly restored in all regions,” President Tokayev said in a statement after meeting with top officials.
“But terrorists are still using weapons, causing damage to civilian property,” he said.
“The counter-terrorist operation will continue until the total destruction of the militants.”
Tokayev confirmed that a peacekeeping force from the Russia-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) had arrived in Kazakhstan.
He said it would stay “for a limited period” and ensure “the protection of strategic facilities.”
Long seen as one the most stable of the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia, energy-rich Kazakhstan is facing its biggest crisis in decades after days of protests over rising fuel prices escalated into widespread unrest.
Protesters stormed government buildings in the largest city Almaty on Wednesday and fought running battles with police and the military, with officials saying 748 security officers were wounded and 18 killed, including two had been decapitated.
Tokayev declared a nationwide state of emergency and appealed for help from the CSTO, which includes five other ex-Soviet states, to combat what he called “terrorist groups” that had “received extensive training abroad”.
Fighting had continued in Almaty on Thursday, with an AFP correspondent hearing bursts of gunfire from the direction of the city’s main square. Local media reports said late on Thursday that security forces had cleared demonstrators from the square and other key government buildings.AFP
