Over 5,000 people have been arrested after a wave of deadly protests that triggered a political crisis in Kazakhstan. Hundreds of police cars were destroyed, officials said.

The number of people arrested by security forces during the violent anti-government protests in Kazakhstan has reached over 5,000, the country's Interior Ministry announced on Sunday morning. 

"At this point, 5,135 people have been arrested across Kazakhstan," Interior Minister Yerlan Turgumbayev said on the TV channel Khabar 24. A rise in fuel prices triggered the deadliest wave of protests that the former Soviet republic has seen in decades. 

Authorities launched a brutal clampdown and were able to largely bring the situation under control in the country's largest city, Almaty, after Russia responded to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's call for help by sending several thousand soldiers. 

Speaking from the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, Turgumbayev gave a rundown of the damage he claimed was left by the protests and clashes over recent days. He reported that 16 security forces had been killed and a further 1,300 had been injured. Government sources had previously spoken of a total of 40 dead, including protesters. 

Some 400 cars, mostly police cars, were destroyed in the violence, as well as over 100 shopping centers and banks. Detainees are facing charges of violence against government officials, hooliganism, murder and theft, with 125 pretrial investigations already having begun. The Interior Ministry had previously said that foreigners were among those arrested. 

Citizens took to the streets following a steep rise in fuel prices last weekend, but the protests quickly grew in scope to encompass a series of economic and political grievances. Most of their anger was directed at the country's former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led the country from the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s before stepping down and naming Tokayev as his successor in 2019. However, Nazarbayev kept control of the country powerful Security Council, and was only ousted by Tokayev during the latest unrest. 

After the violence led to dozens of deaths among both protesters and security forces, President Tokayev ordered the security forces to open fire at protesters without warning. He referred to the protesters as "bandits" and "terrorists." 

Peacekeeping forces from the Russia-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) entered the country in their thousands after Tokayev appealed for assistance against the protests.

(Source: DW)