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Bakiyev supporters seize provincial TV station

RIA Novosti

17/04/201019:06

MOSCOW, April 17 (RIA Novosti) - Supporters of deposed Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Saturday took control of a provincial television station in the city of Jalalabad in southern Kyrgyzstan.

According to the 24.kg news agency, the crowd broke into the station director's office and demanded time on the air.

They subsequently agreed to record a statement to be aired later.

More protests broke out in Kyrgyzstan earlier in the day, 10 days after the outbreak of violent protests that left at least 84 dead and around 1,600 injured.

Two rallies were held on the main square of Jalalabad, a stronghold of ousted president Bakiyev.

One rally involved local police officers, who were campaigning for the protection of their rights, and the other was held by supporters of the county's former defense minister, Bakit Kaliyev, who has been arrested by the country's interim government.

The protestors of the Kaliyev rally turned violent when interim Interior Minister Bolot Sherniyazov arrived in the region to lead an operation into the arrest of the deposed Kyrgyz president's brother Zhanyshbek Bakiyev.

When Sherniyazov arrived at the central square, he was attacked and stones were thrown at his car. He immediately withdrew from the area.

The protesters also broke into an administrative building on the square. A RIA Novosti reporter said there were about 300 supporters of the former president involved.

Violence broke out in Kyrgyzstan on April 6, spreading across the country. President Bakiyev was deposed and forced to flee the capital and later the country. An interim government was formed under Roza Otumbayeva.

Kaliyev, who was one of the deposed president's closest associates, was arrested in Jalalabad on Thursday. The minister was accused of ordering police to shoot civilians during the opposition rally on April 7 at Government House in the capital of the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic, Bishkek.

The deposed president has taken refuge in Kazakhstan but the new Kyrgyz authorities have said they will initiate an international investigation into the alleged crimes committed by him. A special operation has begun in an attempt to find the former president's brother, and ex security services chief.