NUR-SULTAN -- A once-powerful Kazakh politician Darigha Nazarbaeva, the eldest daughter of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev, has announced that she is giving up her parliamentary seat, weeks after Nazarbaev's family loosened its grip on the oil-rich Central Asian nation following deadly unrest in early January.
Nazarbaeva issued a statement on February 25, saying that she now wants to "focus on social, humanitarian, cultural, and charitable activities."
She did not give any other explanation, but emphasized that the violence which followed nationwide anti-government protests in January -- which left at least 227 people dead -- must be "thoroughly investigated."
Nazarbaeva has not been seen in public since the protests that shook the country last month. Her aides have said that she was recovering from the coronavirus.
Many relatives and close associates of Nursultan Nazarbaev -- who ran the tightly controlled nation for almost 30 years before he announced his resignation in March 2019 but continued to control Kazakhstan -- lost their posts in the government, security agencies, and profitable energy groups following the unrest.
Also on February 25, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev sacked Interior Minister Erlan Turghymbaev, who has been criticized by many in Kazakhstan for supervising police brutality during the January unrest and the alleged torture of detained individuals in custody.
Earlier this week, a top official at the Kazakh Prosecutor-General's Office, Rizabek Ozharov, said 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."
Human rights groups have urged Kazakh authorities to thoroughly investigate the use of firearms while dispersing the protests and claims that detainees were tortured in custody. They say that the number of those killed during the violence may be much higher.
They presented proof that many peaceful demonstrators and people who had nothing to do with the protests were killed by police and military personnel following the issuance of a "shoot-to-kill-without-warning" order by Toqaev.
Human Rights Watch has called on Kazakh authorities to hold independent investigations with international experts of all killings, arbitrary arrests, and torture allegations during and after the violence.
