Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered an investigation into the worst violence in the former Soviet state in years which left at least 11 people dead.
More than 70 people were injured as striking oil workers clashed with police in the western town of Zhanaozen on Friday. Eyewitnesses claim police fired on unarmed protesters, a charge denied by the authorities.
"The head of state has created a government commission on the matter of Zhanaozen," the country's prime minister, Karin Masmov, wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
The commission is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Umirzak Shukeyev.
President Nazarbayev also declared a state of emergency in the region, his press service said.
Kazakhstan's opposition Social Democratic Party (OSDP) earlier called for the creation of an emergency panel to investigate the violence.
It also urged the authorities to lift “an information blockade of the events in Zhanaozen,” as internet users complained of being unable to access independent news websites and Twitter in the region.
The confrontation - the most violent in the energy-rich nation since it gained independence in 1991 - came as police tried to clear protesters from the town’s main square, occupied by the workers for more than six months.
The workers had been protesting for higher wages.
Prosecutor General Askhat Daulbayev said that the mayor’s office, a hotel and police vehicles were set on fire during the “mass disturbances.”
The country’s state television made no mention of the clashes on Friday, instead focusing on festivities in the capital, Astana, to mark Independence Day.
The U.S.-based campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the violence and called on the police to refrain from using excessive force.
“Even in times of unrest and violence, when police restore order they should do so without using excessive force,” HRW Central Asia researcher Mihra Rittmann said in a statement. “While it’s too early to make any conclusions about what happened, there are international rules and standards about the use of lethal force, and Kazakh authorities should observe them.”
