MOSCOW (Sputnik) – More than 20 armed people have been arrested in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan, with 40 weapons seized, a local police department said on Sunday.
“In the Almaty region, more than 20 persons were arrested, from whom 40 weapons were seized,” the department said in a statement published on Telegram.
According to the police, seized weaponry contains 25 Makarov pistols, five Kalashnikov assault rifles, rifles and sawed-off shotguns. In addition, 500 rounds of various calibers were seized.
A wave of protests swept across Kazakhstan earlier this week, following a sharp rise in gas prices. Despite the government’s attempts to quell the discontent and promises to bring the prices down, protests turned violent and descended into clashes with law enforcement officers in several regions.
The government declared a state of emergency until 19 January. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked for the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) assistance, which was granted. CSTO peacekeepers were sent to Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh president said Friday that there were still militants who continued resistance and pledged to fight those who do not lay down the arms. At the same time, Tokayev has said that the government had reached a compromise with peaceful protesters on urgent social and economic issues.
A man who has been detained in Almaty has confessed that he’d arrived from Kyrgyzstan after unknown people offered him over $200 to take part in protests in neighboring Kazakhstan.
“Some strangers called me over the phone and offered to participate in the rally in exchange for 90 thousand tenge (over $200). Since I am unemployed in Kyrgyzstan, I agreed,” the detainee told Khabar 24, a local broadcaster.
He said that unidentified people bought him a ticket and paid for a place for him to live in Kazakhstan. According to the man, around ten people from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan lived with him.
The Kyrgyz citizen detained on suspicion of participating in the protests in Kazakhstan, according to the founder of the High-Tech Park of Kyrgyzstan Azis Abakirov, is jazz musician Vikram Rozakhunov.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kyrgyzstan said that it is clarifying the circumstances of the detention of the musician in Kazakhstan. The head of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan said that this person is not a terrorist.
Earlier, Sergei Lebedev, the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), said that protests in Kazakhstan had been prepared in advance in order to destabilize the situation in the country, and its organizers had foreign backing.
“It is obvious today that the destructive elements, the bandits were preparing for mass rallies in advance to destabilize the country and had foreign support,” Lebedev said. “These provocateurs, guides, and sponsors of the so-called ‘color revolutions’ and riots in the CIS these days declare with feigned pride their leading role in criminal acts in the cities of Kazakhstan.”