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Almaty police unearth secret graves of terrorists eliminated during failed insurrection

Earlier,the chief of the Almaty police department said that during the riots, unidentified individuals carried out at least seven attacks on morgues, during which the bodies of 41 deceased individuals were spirited away

NUR-SULTAN, January 20. /TASS/. Kazakh police have announced the discovery of burial sites of militants killed during the recent failed insurrection in Almaty, the Almaty Tragedy telegram channel, which publishes official information about the anti-terrorist operation in Kazakhstan, reported on Thursday.

"Yes, I corroborate this information," the channel quotes Saltanat Azirbek, Almaty police spokeswoman, as saying, referring to the information on the unaccounted-for graves of militants.

"Secret graves were made in order to complicate the identity of the rioters," Azirbek explained.

Earlier, Kanat Taimerdenov, chief of the Almaty police department, said that during the riots, unidentified individuals carried out at least seven attacks on morgues, during which the bodies of 41 deceased individuals were spirited away.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said during a meeting among the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held via videoconference on January 10 that the rioters attacked morgues at night and removed the bodies of their accomplices. What’s more, they whisked away the bodies of fighters directly from the sites where armed clashes with law enforcement forces transpired. The head of state noted that international terrorists use such practices to cover their tracks.

Protests broke out in various Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots and attacks against police and military personnel, with government buildings getting ransacked across several cities a few days later. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the CSTO requesting assistance, and as a result, the alliance’s peacekeepers were deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7. According to the General Prosecutor's Office, more than 4,500 people were injured in the insurrection, and the bodies of 225 of those killed were taken to local morgues.