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Kazakhstan January riots deadliest in country’s post-Soviet history

Violent unrest in Kazakhstan has left 225 people dead, of which 19 were law enforcement officers and military personnel, authorities announced on Saturday. It comes in the aftermath of, among other issues, a “shoot to kill” order given by the country’s president to uniformed services.

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According to Serik Shalabayev, a representative of the state prosecutor, apart from the casualties among the security, others were “armed bandits who participated in terrorist attacks, and unfortunately, civilians also became the victims of acts of terrorism.”

The toll provided by Mr Shalabayev confirmed the violence which was the deadliest in the country’s post-Soviet history.

Mass riots brutally quelled with help of Russia

Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2 over soaring fuel prices and escalated into mass riots a few days later in major cities.

Authorities announced that it was a coup attempt led by “armed fighters”. The president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, issued a “shoot to kill” order and the protests were brutally suppressed. He also turned to a Russia-led military bloc for help during the unrest and sidelined his former patron and predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev by taking over the national security council.

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After complaints about beatings and torture of those detained in the aftermath, Mr Tokayev ordered police on Saturday to avoid abuses and told prosecutors to be lenient to those who have not committed grave crimes.

Kazakh authorities seek security reforms

On Saturday, Mr Tokayev held a meeting with the country’s security and law-enforcement agencies and asked them to further look into recent riots and reform the country’s security system.

Following on from the meeting, the head of state gave a number of instructions. Special attention was paid to comprehensively investigating the tragic events in Kazakhstan, in particular, in Almaty, establishing the exact number of those killed among civilians, developing a new regulatory framework and coordinating the actions of security, defence and law-enforcement agencies in critical situations, the presidential press office said in a statement.

As of Saturday afternoon, the state of emergency was lifted in 10 out of 17 regions as the situation calmed.

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