Two Kazakh Activists In Hospital After Police Disperse May Day Groups

Opposition activist Ainur Qurmanov talks to reporters through the window of his hospital room in Almaty on May 2.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Two Kazakh activists are in the hospital after police forcibly dispersed groups marking Labor Day in Almaty, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Dozens of supporters of the opposition Kazakhstan-2012 movement and the Committee of Jailed Citizens' Mothers had come to the city's central square to join other groups marking Labor Day on May 1.

Police forcibly dispersed them, and prominent Kazakh human rights activist Vadim Kuramshin told journalists on May 1 that two of the activists beaten by police were hospitalized.

He said Kazakh National Security Committee officers on May 1 were monitoring who entered the room in Almaty hospital where one of the beaten activists, Ainur Qurmanov, was being treated for head injuries and concussion.

Hundreds of other people marked Labor Day in Almaty without incident.

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