NUR-SULTAN -- The Uzbek Embassy in Kazakhstan has officially requested detailed information from Kazakh authorities regarding more than a dozen Uzbek nationals held in custody over the deadly January unrest in the Central Asian nation.
Embassy spokesman Yusup Kabuljanov said in a February 22 statement that it handed a note regarding the issue to Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry.
Kabuljanov's statement said that the Uzbek side had asked Kazakh authorities to provide the identities of 14 Uzbek nationals held in Kazakh custody, reasons for their detention, sites where they are being held, and the state of their health.
The embassy also asked Kazakh authorities "to organize meetings of the detained Uzbek citizens with officials of Uzbekistan's diplomatic missions and consulates."
Kabuljanov's statement came hours after Kazakh Ombudswoman Elvira Azimova told reporters that 18 foreign citizens who were arrested during and after anti-government protests that turned deadly in early January remain in Kazakhstan’s detention centers.
Azimova said that the foreign nationals include 14 Uzbeks, two Kyrgyz, and two Russians.
On February 10, Uzbekistan's consulate in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, said that the Uzbek Foreign Ministry had handed a note to Kazakhstan regarding the situation of Uzbek citizen Saken Talipov who was among those arrested during the violence in Almaty.
Talipov's mother, Kamshat Derbisalieva, a naturalized Kazakh citizen who lives in Almaty, told RFE/RL at the time that her 17-year-old son was charged with taking part in mass disorders and threatening the life of a law enforcement officer, accusations which the woman said her son rejects.
SEE ALSO: Majlis Podcast: Making Sense Of The Worst Unrest In Kazakhstan's HistoryIn the wake of the violence that started with peaceful demonstrations in the western Kazakh town of Zhanaozen over fuel price hikes and led to anti-government protests across the country, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev claimed that "20,000 extremists trained in terrorist camps abroad" attacked Almaty, and other regions.
Kazakh officials have not presented any evidence proving Toqaev's claim about the foreign terrorists, but have said that 227 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, were killed during the unrest across the country.
According to official data, two Kyrgyz and one Uzbek citizen died in the clashes.
On February 22, a top official of the Kazakh Prosecutor-General's Office, Rizabek Ozharov, told the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper that investigations had been launched into the deaths of six suspects arrested during the unrest, who died in custody as a result of what Ozharov called "illegal methods of interrogation."
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'Burned With An Iron': Relatives Say Detainees Tortured After Massive Kazakh Protests
Ozharov said that two suspects died in Almaty, three in the East Kazakhstan Region, and one in the southeastern city of Taldyqorghan.
Ozharov added that a probe had been launched into allegations that a suspect was tortured with a hot iron by investigators in Taldyqorghan.
Human rights groups insist that the number may be much higher as scores of people are still missing, presenting proof that many peaceful demonstrators and persons who had nothing to do with the protests were killed by police and military personnel following a "shoot-to-kill-without-warning" order, which was issued by Toqaev during the unrest.
Human Rights Watch has called on Kazakh authorities to hold independent investigations involving international experts of all killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture allegations during and after the violence.