NUR-SULTAN: Security forces in Kazakhstan have detained over 10,000 persons in connection with last week’s unrest, the interior ministry of the central Asian nation said on Tuesday.
The oil-rich former Soviet republic says government buildings were attacked in several major cities after initially peaceful protests against hikes in the price of car fuel turned violent.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said Islamist militants from other central Asian nations and Afghanistan, as well as the Middle East, were among the attackers.
Meanwhile, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Tuesday that a Russian-led military bloc would begin withdrawing its troops from Kazakhstan in two days’ time after fulfilling its main mission of stabilising the Central Asian country after serious unrest.