A fiery orator fluent in Kazakh, Chinese and English, Bilash has become a prominent figure on the Kazakh political scene. Atajurt said security forces had broken into Bilash’s hotel room in Almaty in the early hours of Sunday, detained him and quickly flown him to Astana, the capital of the former Soviet republic.
Bilash’s lawyer, Aiman Umarova, posted a video on Sunday saying she had just arrived in Astana and was going to visit him at the police department where he was being held. Astana’s police department had no immediate comment.
The government of the Central Asian nation has avoided criticising China's Xinjiang policies, but negotiated the release of some two dozen people with dual Kazakh and Chinese citizenships detained in China. (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Additional reporting by Tamara Vaal in Astana; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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