Nur-Sultan Kazakhstan January 6 ANI Amid nationwide agitation in Kazakhstan, protesters have retracted the statue of the country's first President Nursultan Nazarbayev, according to Al Jazeera.
The media outlet said that the huge protest took place in the western town of Zhanaozen against the doubling of the price of liquefied petroleum gas LPG, which most Kazakhs use as car fuel.
The country ended a gradual transition to electronic trading for LPG in order to halt state subsidies for fuel and let the market dictate prices, according to a report.
Demonstrations have been extended to other Kazakh towns and villages - sparking the most geographically widespread protest in the country's history - and have encompassed wider grievances.
The protests continued even though the government announced on Tuesday that fuel prices would be reduced to a level even lower than before the increase, and on Wednesday President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sacked his cabinet.
President Tokayev reached out to the leaders of member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization CSTO asking for assistance in tackling terrorist aggression in the republic.
Terrorist gangs are international, they have undergone extensive training abroad, and their attack on Kazakhstan can and should be seen as an act of aggression. According to Sputnik, I reached out to the heads of the CSTO member states to help with this terrorist threat, and relying on the Collective Security Treaty.
The news agency Tengrinews.kz reported that eight police officers and national guard soldiers died during the protests and over 300 law enforcement officers were injured.
Hundreds of people ensuring law, order and healthcare of population law enforcement officers, doctors, ordinary residents, including 317 police officers and national guard servicemen were injured, eight were killed, as per the Sputnik News Agency.
The appeal received from Kazakhstan said that the situation in the country is seen as an invasion of gangs from abroad.
The CSTO Secretariat received an appeal from the Kazakh side for assistance. The appeal says that the situation is seen as an invasion of gangs trained from abroad, according to Sputnik.
In consultations with members of the CSTO Collective Security Council, Kazakhstan sent a request to the heads of the CSTO member states for military assistance.