Kazakhstan's president said on Friday that he had given his forces a shoot-to-kill order to deal with disturbances from those he called bandits and terrorists — a day after Russia sent troops to put down a countrywide uprising.
Security forces appeared to be in control of the streets of the main city of Almaty on Friday morning but gunfire could still be heard after days of unrest in which dozens of people have been killed and public buildings ransacked and torched.
"The militants have not laid down their arms, they continue to commit crimes or are preparing for them. The fight against them must be pursued to the end. Whoever does not surrender will be destroyed," President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a televised address.