NUR-SULTAN, January 11. /TASS/. The border guards service of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee detained 366 people on suspicion of participating in mass unrest, the committee’s press service said in Tuesday.
"Since the start of the counter-terrorism operation, territorial branches of the Border Guards Service, both jointly and as part of joint teams with other law enforcement agencies, detained 366 people on suspicion of participating in antisocial activities. Six of them were injured when they resisted arrest," the statement says.
The service said that its units were on high combat alert, and security has been beefed up on the country’s borders.
Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings getting ransacked in several cities a few days later. The ensuing violence left scores of people injured, with fatalities also being reported. Subsequently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) requesting assistance from the Russia-led bloc. As a result, peacekeepers have already been deployed to Kazakhstan. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions by the morning of January 7.