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Kazakhstan: Nearly 8,000 arrests during riots

The situation in Kazakhstan is now under control, the country’s National Security Committee announced today, while the Ministry of Interior stated that almost 8,000 people have been arrested during last week’s riots, the worst in the history of the former Soviet republic since its independence.

The “nuclei of terrorist threats” have been neutralized, the National Security Committee said in a statement.

“On January 10 7,989 people “They are being held by the organs of the Ministry of Interior,” the ministry said.

Karim Massimov, former head of this powerful service, was ousted last week by President Kassim-Yomart Tokayev and has now been arrested on suspicion of treason.

Tokayev, as the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency reminds, has allowed security forces to shoot protesters without warning and has declared the oil-rich state of 19 million inhabitants a state of emergency. He also called on the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to send troops to Kazakhstan to guard strategic facilities.

«I believe that there was some kind of conspiracy in which some domestic and foreign destructive forces took partKazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Gerlan Karin said today, speaking on state television, without naming any specifics.

The demonstrations in the Kazakhstan started a week ago as protest against rising fuel prices, before turning into a wider protest against the government of President Tokayev and his predecessor, 81-year-old Nursultan Nazarbayev. This is the deadliest outbreak of violence in the 30 years of Kazakhstan’s independence.

Russian and local media reported today that 164 people were killed during the riots, citing a government post on social media, but police and hospital authorities have not confirmed the number. The post has now been deleted. Today has been declared a day of national mourning.

Today, Internet access was restored to Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, found a correspondent of the French Agency. In the economic capital of the Central Asian country, a city with a population of about 1.8 million, access to domestic and international websites was again possible. Life was gradually returning to normal early in the morning, with public transport reopening, for the first time since outbreak of violent incidents.

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