Jan. 5 (UPI) —<\/span> Kazakhstan declared a state of emergency Wednesday in the capital city of Nur-Sultan and its largest city, Almaty, after protests over energy prices turned violent.<\/p>\n President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed the government as he declared the emergency. It appeared to be a bid to concede to protester demands.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Internet access was cut in Kazakhstan by Kazakhtelecom, the country’s largest telecommunications company, as demonstrators demanded the ouster of the authoritarian government.<\/p>\n Police in Almaty used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets against protesters who stormed the mayor’s office.<\/p>\n Hundreds of protesters, some armed with rubber truncheons battled police in Almaty and seized some police vehicles, The New York Times reported.<\/p>\n At least one fire broke out during the protest at the Almaty office of Nur Otan, Kazakhstan’s ruling political party.<\/p>\n A document published on the Kazakhstan president’s website said the state of emergency includes a ban on mass gatherings, an overnight curfew and restrictions on entering or leaving Almaty.<\/p>\n It was the fourth straight day of protests over a doubling of the price for liquefied petroleum gas.<\/p>\n The protest began in the western region of the country and spread from there. Thousands of protesters were in the streets throughout Kazakhstan Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n Tokayev’s office said he has appointed Alikhan Smailov as acting prime minister.<\/p>\n Tokayev tweeted that the violence was caused by “destructive individuals who want to undermine the stability and unity of our society.”<\/p>\n He said the government would meet to discuss “the socio-economic demands” of protesters.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People protest during rally over a hike in energy prices in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday. Protesters stormed the mayor’s office in Almaty, as Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency in the capital until January 19. Photo by EPA-EFE Jan. 5 (UPI) — Kazakhstan declared a state of emergency Wednesday in the capital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":736584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-736583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kazakhstan](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Kazakhstan-declares-emergency-amid-protests-over-energy-prices.jpg\" "\\"Kazakhstan")
\n<\/div>\nPeople protest during rally over a hike in energy prices in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday. Protesters stormed the mayor’s office in Almaty, as Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency in the capital until January 19. Photo by EPA-EFE<\/p>\n