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Authorities in Kazakhstan said Thursday they had detained seven people suspected of planning “riots” during this weekend’s presidential elections, which being held months after deadly unrest rocked the Central Asian country.
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“The National Security Committee, with the assistance of prosecutors, suppressed the activities of a criminal group involved in planning and organising mass riots on November 20 of this year,” the security services said in a statement.
The statement said that the group was not only organising large-scale riots but planning to attack administrative buildings and law enforcement offices using arms and projectiles.
Weapons including Kalashnikov assault rifles, sawn-off shotguns, ammunition and materials for Molotov cocktails as well as walkie-talkies were confiscation, it said.
The large ex-Soviet country is holding snap presidential elections Sunday expected to cement the incumbent Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s grip on power, months after nationwide protests against fuel prices in January turned violent and left more than two hundred dead.
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In a video accompanying the statement, the security services added that: “since the January events, radical elements have continued to develop plans to destabilise the country and seize cities in Kazakhstan, including Almaty and Astana”, the country’s largest city and its capital.
Tokayev, who ordered law enforcement to shoot to kill during the violence, became a leader in 2019 and has since stymied opposition and consolidated power by sidelining his authoritarian predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev.
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