ALMATY - Scuffles broke out as up to 1,500 protestors demonstrated over the killing of an opposition leader in KazakhstanÂ’s largest city Almaty on Sunday. The protestors carried banners, red carnations and photographs of the opposition leader, Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, who was found shot Demonstrators scuffled with police as they tried to march from the Academy of Sciences building where the demonstration began to the cityÂ’s main square. Police eventually let demonstrators assemble on the square.
The killing of Sarsenbaiuly along with two other men his driver and his bodyguard has sparked a political crisis in this Central Asian ex-Soviet republic. Last Wednesday, the head of KazakhstanÂ’s state security service announced his resignation after five members of his agency and another man were arrested in connection with the murder of Sarsenbaiuly, a leader of the opposition coalition For a Just Kazakhstan.
On Thursday, police announced the arrest of the head of the parliamentary administration on suspicion of taking part in the murder.
Sarsenbaiuly, a former government minister and one-time ally of Nazarbayev, joined the opposition group For a Just Kazakhstan in 2004 after splitting from the government. President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Tuesday condemned the killing as “a challenge to the whole of society” and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.