EFE / EPA / STRINGERKazakh police gather during a protest in Kazakhstan

Protests in Kazakhstan 164 were killed and 2,000 were injured. In addition, authorities announced on Sunday, September 9, that more than 6,000 people had been arrested in connection with the bloody protests that rocked Central Asia’s largest country throughout the week. An independent source could not confirm the figures, but several newspapers quoted the health ministry as saying that 103 deaths had been reported in the financial capital, Almaty. They are called “armed criminals”) and 16 security forces and forces.

The statement disappeared from the government channel on Sunday afternoon Telegram, And the Ministry of Health told the Kazakh and Russian media that the information had been published incorrectly. However, they did not deny this information and did not provide new figures. In all, more than 5,800 people have been detained in 125 different investigations, “many of them foreigners,” the Kazakh presidency said in a statement without elaborating. “The situation is stable across the country,” the source added, following a crisis meeting convened by President Qasim Johart Tokayev, despite the fact that security forces are continuing their “clean-up” operations.

Kazakhstan, with a population of 19 million, rich in hydrocarbons, was rocked by unprecedented demonstrations, the largest since independence in 1989, in which dozens of people died. Protests in the provinces began last Sunday at 2 a.m. following a rise in gas prices. It was later spread to major cities, including Almati, and police live bullets against protesters. The Kazakh Interior Ministry, citing local newspapers on Sunday, estimated the material damage at about 175 million euros (R $ 1.1 billion).

More than a hundred companies and banks were looted and about 400 vehicles were destroyed. Almaty returned to relative calm in the next few days, but police fired warning shots into the air to prevent them from approaching the city’s central square, a report on Saturday, the 8th. As a sign of cowardice, 30 supermarkets reopened. Sunday, according to newspapers, raises concerns about a possible famine. The local airport, which was scheduled to reopen at 10 a.m. Monday, will remain closed “until the situation stabilizes.”

* With information from AFP