Officials in Kazakhstan say 225 people died during violent unrest last week

The toll puts the violence as the deadliest in the country's post-Soviet history.

People walk past cars, which were burned after clashes, on a street in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 7 January, 2022.

People walk past cars, which were burned after clashes, on a street in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 7 January, 2022. Source: AP

The bodies of 225 people killed in unrest in Kazakhstan last week, including 19 members of the security forces, were delivered to morgues throughout the country, the prosecutor general's office says.

The figure included civilians and armed "bandits" killed by security forces, Serik Shalabayev, the head of criminal prosecution at the prosecutor's office, told a briefing on Saturday.

He did not provide an exact breakdown of the figures and said numbers could be updated later.

Violent protests began in the oil-producing central Asian country this month after a jump in car fuel prices.

The toll provided by Mr Shalabayev confirmed the violence was the deadliest in the country's post-Soviet history.

Officials had previously put the death toll at 160 people.
Mr Shalabayev said 50,000 people joined the riots throughout the republic at their peak on 5 January when crowds stormed and torched government buildings, cars, banks and shops in several major cities.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev turned to a Russia-led military bloc for help during the unrest and sidelined his former patron and predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev by taking over the national security council.

After complaints about beatings and torture of those detained in the aftermath, Mr Tokayev ordered police on Saturday to avoid abuses and told prosecutors to be lenient to those who have not committed grave crimes.


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Published 16 January 2022 7:00am
Updated 22 February 2022 1:56pm
Source: Reuters, SBS


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