International Desk :
More than 160 people were killed and 5,000 arrested in Kazakhstan after the riots that shook Central Asia’s largest country over the past week, reports news agencies.
The interior ministry, quoted on Sunday by local media, said initial estimates put property damage at about 175 million euros ($198m) after the deadly violence.
More than 100 businesses and banks were attacked and looted and about 400 vehicles destroyed, the ministry said.
A total of 164 people, including two children, were killed in violent, Russia’s Sputnik news agency cited the health ministry as saying on Sunday.
It said 103 people had died in Kazakhstan’s main city of Almaty, where the worst of the violence took place.
“Today the situation is stabilised in all regions of the country,” Interior Minister Erlan Turgumbayev said, adding nonetheless “the counterterror operation is continuing in a bid to re-establish order in the country”.
A relative calm appeared to return to the main city Almaty with police sometimes firing shots into the air to stop people approaching its central square.
In total, 5,135 people have been detained for questioning as part of 125 separate investigations into the unrest, the interior ministry said.
Shoot-to-kill policy
The energy-rich country of about 19 million people was rocked by a week of violence with dozens killed afmmail terriots prompted President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to issue shoot-to-kill orders to end unrest he has blamed on what he terms “bandits and terrorists”.
Fuel price rises sparked the unrest a week ago in western provincial areas but they quickly reached large cities, including the economic hub Almaty, where riots erupted and police opened fire using live rounds amid the deadliest outbreak of violence in the country’s 30 years of independence.
At Tokayev’s invitation, the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) sent troops to restore order, an intervention that comes at a time of high tension in Russia-United States relations ahead of new talks on the Ukraine crisis.
“A number of strategic facilities have been transferred under the protection of the united peacekeeping contingent of the CSTO member states,” the presidential office said in a statement detailing a security briefing chaired by Tokayev.
It did not identify the facilities.
Former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev was the longest-serving ruler of any former Soviet state until he turned over the presidency to Tokayev in 2019. His family is widely believed to have retained influence in Nur-Sultan, the purpose-built capital that bears his name.
Tokayev removed Nazarbayev on Wednesday as head of the country’s Security Council, a role in which he had continued to wield significant influence.
Kazakhstan’s former intelligence chief and two-time Prime Minister Karim Masimov was arrested on suspicion of treason.
