Jan 7, 2022: The office of Kazakh President Kassym Jomart Tokayev quoted him as saying in a statement on Friday that most of the constitutional order had been restored in the troubled Central Asian country this week.
The Kazakh Interior Ministry said in a separate statement that 26 “armed criminals” had been “liquidated” and that more than 3,000 of them had been detained. While 18 police and National Guard personnel have been killed since the protests started. “An anti-terrorism operation has been launched. The law and order forces are working hard. The constitutional system has been largely restored in all regions of the country,” Tokayev said.
“Local authorities are in control of the situation. But terrorists are still using weapons and damaging the property of citizens. Therefore, counter-terrorist actions should be continued until the militants are completely eliminated,” he added.
Russia on Thursday sent paramilitary forces to help quell a nationwide uprising in one of Moscow’s former Soviet allies as part of a Russian-led CSTO security bloc. On Friday morning, Reuters correspondents spotted armored aircraft and military personnel in the main square of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, where troops had opened fire on protesters the day before. A few hundred meters away, Reuters reporters found a body in a heavily damaged civilian car.
In another part of the city, they saw a wreckage shop in another Almaty square selling ammunition and about 100 people in military vehicles and military uniforms.
President Tokayev will address the nation on Friday, his administration said, asking people in Almaty to limit their travelling around the city while the “search for the remaining hiding bandits is underway.”
There has been no precedent for violence since the Soviet era in the state ruled by leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who took over the reins three years ago despite stepping down as president.
The uprising, which began as a protest against rising fuel prices on New Year’s Day, intensified on Wednesday when anti-Nazarbayev protesters stormed public buildings in Almaty and other cities. Demonstrators accused Nazarbayev’s family and allies of amassing enormous wealth, while a nation of 19 million remained poor.
Nazarbayev’s elected successor, Tokayev, earlier this week blamed unrest on foreign-trained terrorists.
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