(ANSA-AFP) – ALMATY, 06 JAN – “Dozens” of protesters were killed by police in Kazakhstan during the night, while violent protests continued throughout the country.
This was announced by the Kazakh police themselves. “Last night, extremist forces attempted to storm the administrative buildings and the police department of Almaty, as well as local police departments and posts,” said a police spokesman, quoted by Interfax-Kazakhstan, Tass et Ria Novosti.
“Dozens of assailants have been eliminated and their identities are being investigated,” said the police spokesman of the former Soviet Central Asian republic, Saltanat Azirbek, who called their killing a “counter-terrorism operation”, saying the shooting was still ongoing in the country’s economic capital, Almaty. In a video released by the Tass news agency, soldiers in combat gear are seen firing at eye level, even if the demonstrators are not framed, and the shots are heard.
According to the Kazakh Ministry of the Interior, quoted by local media, at least 8 members of the police were killed in the clashes and another 137 wounded.
Over a thousand people were injured in two days of violent street clashes in Kazakhstan – where there were also dozens of deaths -, of which at least 400 were hospitalized and 62 in intensive care: the Kazakh Deputy Minister of Health, Azhar announced. Guiniyat, to the Khabar-24 TV station, quoted by Tass.
Images disseminated on local media and social networks show looted shops and some administrative buildings stormed and set on fire. The protest was triggered by the announcement of the increase in gas prices.
Meanwhile, Moscow announces that the first troops of the “peacekeeping force” promised in the evening by the Organization of the Collective Security Treaty (CSTO) – the alliance between some former Soviet republics which brings together, in addition to Russia and Kazakhstan, also Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan – were sent to Kazakh territory, to “stabilize the country”, as it was disturbed by “external interference”. (ANSA-AFP).
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Source From: Ansa
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