Aryanews- New unrest erupted in south Kyrgyzstan Saturday as the interim authorities struggled to assert their authority and uncertainty grew over the whereabouts of toppled president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Bakiyev dramatically flew out of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan late Thursday, with world powers and the new authorities hoping his exit would restore stability after 84 were killed in protests last week.
But the interior minister of Kyrgyzstan's interim government was beaten up as scuffles erupted at a protest against the new authorities in the south of the country where the bulk of Bakiyev supporters are concentrated, reports said.
Bolotbek Sherniyazov was seeking to talk to 500 local policemen in the southern city of Jalalabad who were protesting against the actions of the new authorities when he was attacked, radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz station of US-funded Radio Free Europe reported.
He finally managed to flee to his jeep and leave the scene as the protestors hurled bottles at his car, the report said. A similar report was also carried by Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency.
Dozens of protestors then entered the regional administration building, briefly taking hostage the regional governor Bekut Asanov. After an hour he was allowed to go but the protestors remained in the building, Azattyk said.
It said their chief demand was the release of Bakiyev ally and former defence minister Baktybek Kaliyev, who was detained by the authorities after the departure of the ex-president.
Uncertainty is growing over the whereabouts of Bakiyev, with some reports saying he has already moved on from Kazakhstan. Bakiyev has spent the last days in the southern Kazakhstan city of Taraz.
"Bakiyev has left Kazakhstan. He is no longer on the territory of the country," an informed source told the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, saying it was not clear where he was now.
Another source also told the agency that Bakiyev had flown out of Taraz late on Friday for an unknown destination. Kazakh officials contacted by AFP could not be reached for further comment.
Earlier reports had said that Bakiyev was due to arrive in the ex-Soviet state of Belarus, whose President Alexander Lukashenko had last week offered him asylum. But Belarussian officials denied he would be coming.
There has also been speculation in the Russian media that Bakiyev could be seeking to head to Turkey.
The interim government of Kyrgyzstan have said they will seek to bring him to justice wherever he goes.
"Wherever Kurmanbek Bakiyev goes, the international community must see him as a criminal," the deputy head of the interim government Azimbek Beknazarov told reporters in Bishkek.
Bakiyev came to power in a popular uprising known as the Tulip Revolution in 2005, but in recent years he came under increasing criticism for authoritarianism and corruption.
The government has also launched operations to arrest close family members and allies of Bakiyev, but so far appears only to have netted Kaliyev.
An operation to arrest his brother and former top regime figure Zhanysh Bakiyev ended in apparent failure when he slipped out of his village when it was surrounded by the security forces, officials said.
He is now the subject of a major search.
