Masanchi: Clashes in southern Kazakhstan killed eight people. Dozens of persons were injured and buildings were burned as clashes erupted on Saturday.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Kazakh president called on an emergency government session on Saturday to deal with Friday’s bloodshed in an ethnically-mixed region of Jambyl near the Kazakh border. An inquiry commission was set up.
The interior minister Yerlan Turgumbayev said in the center Nur-sultan “Eight died, more than 40 were injured” during the clashes.
Masanchi, one of the villages where the clashes started, was visited by a journalist. It was reported, “Few people were out walking on streets lined by smoldering houses as fire crews put out the remaining fires”.
Several residents could be observed as gathering their belongings from partially-burnt houses when they were ready to evacuate the village under security of Special Forces and police.
He said, “The clashes that saw 47 people detained occurred close to the Kyrgyz border where a journalist saw over a thousand people queuing to get into oil-rich Kazakhstan’s poorer neighbor. Border authorities were only letting women and children through”.
According to the health ministry of Kyrgyzstan a hospital near the city of Tokmak admitted 18 patients after the clashes, 10 of them are still under treatment.
The Kyrgyz president Tokayev stated the clash that dropped overnight taken place in several settlements of the Kordai district of Jambyl.
Tokayev said “Unfortunately there are injuries and fatalities. I express my sincere condolences to the close ones of those who died” while addressing the emergency session.
A government commission is aimed to “determine the reasons for the conflict, decide questions of a socioeconomic and humanitarian character, and determine the scale of the damage” reached the area on Saturday.
Deputy Prime Minister Berdibek Saparbayev reassured while he visited a hospital in Korday “the guilty will be punished”. He posted a comment on the official website of the prime minister “The main question now is ensuring stability, the law and security in the region”.
Video posted on social media displayed scenes of young men, a number of armed with clubs walking through the road of a village.
It is widely believed that the clash eroded Kazakhs against Dungans.
The information minister Duaren Abayev said the clash was sparked by “everyday confrontation”. Abayev also stated that major markets of Almaty were closed to make sure the conflict did not extend.
He told journalists in Nur-sultan “There were calls for violence at these markets”.
He said about markets that were closed “Accordingly, precautionary measures were taken” where the culturally diverse groups of populations sell goods from turkey, china and other countries.
Deputy Chairman of the Kazakhstan assembly of the peoples, a Dungan lawmaker and a chair of Dungan association were a part of the commission.
Bakytjan, a driver who use to take visitors from Kazakhstan border to the main city of Kyrgyzstan Almaty said: “the conflict had begun after a man from the Dungan minority ethnic group attacked an elderly Kazakh man”.–Worldwide News