To put down uprising, Kazakh Prez gives shoot-to-kill order

ALMATY, January 7

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Friday he had ordered his forces to shoot-to-kill to deal with disturbances from those he called bandits and terrorists, a day after Russia sent troops to put down a countrywide uprising.

West must stand up to Russia in Kazakhstan: Oppn leader

London: The West must pull Kazakhstan out of Moscow’s orbit or Russian President Vladimir Putin would draw the Central Asian state into “a structure like the Soviet Union”, said Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former minister who is now a Kazakh opposition leader. He said the West needed to enter the fray. Reuters

Security forces appeared to be in control of the streets of the main city Almaty on Friday morning but gunfire could still be heard after days of unrest in which several people have been killed and public buildings ransacked and torched.

“The militants have not laid down their arms, they continue to commit crimes. The fight against them must be pursued to the end. Whoever does not surrender will be destroyed,” Tokayev said in a televised address.

“I have given the order to law enforcement agencies and the army to shoot to kill without warning.” Tokayev has blamed foreign-trained terrorists for the worst violence in the Central Asian state’s 30 years of independence. — Reuters

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