Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government’s resignation on Wednesday after a fuel price increase in the oil-producing Central Asian country triggered protests in which nearly 100 police were injured.
Police used tear gas and stun grenades late on Tuesday to drive hundreds of protesters out of the main square in Almaty, the former Soviet republic’s biggest city.
Clashes resumed on Wednesday after the Cabinet resigned. A Reuters correspondent saw thousands of protesters pressing ahead towards Almaty city centre, some of them on a large truck, after security forces failed to disperse them with tear gas and flashbang grenades.
Atameken, Kazakhstan’s business lobby group, said its members were reporting cases of attacks on banks, stores and restaurants.
City authorities urged residents to stay home, saying that the law enforcement operation was continuing.
The protests began after the government lifted price controls on liquefied petroleum gas at the start of the year.
A source familiar with the situation said some workers at Mangistaumunaigas, a Kazakh-Chinese oil-producing joint venture based in the Mangistau province, were on strike, although this was not affecting output so far.
Tokayev declared the emergency in Almaty and Mangistau and has said that domestic and foreign provocateurs were behind the violence.
It was reported that citizens of the Russian Federation were seen among the protesters. The source also reported that the recruitment of citizens from Donetsk and Luhansk (Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine) to travel to Kazakhstan has begun.
Separately, the interior ministry said that in addition to Almaty, government buildings were attacked in the southern cities of Shymkent and Taraz overnight, with 95 police officers wounded in clashes. Police have detained more than 200 people.