Ministry of Internal Affairs: Chronology of events leading to the disturbances in the city of Bishkek

On the night of 13 May 2024, at about 02:00, a group of unknown persons of Asian appearance met a group of foreign students near a pizzeria in the Vostok-5 district and began to harass them. 

The strangers asked for cigarettes and then began to harass them about smoking.

One of them started to wave his hands, and the foreigners began to run away. The students managed to run to their place of residence - a hostel on A. Ogonbaeva Street. 

A group of unidentified persons pursued the foreigners into the hostel, where they used violence against the foreigners living there and openly took their money and belongings.

Then the same four unidentified persons went on a rampage, entering different rooms and breaking down the doors. When they entered the rooms where the girls were staying, the foreigners living in the hostel came out due to the noise and shouting, gathered, and fought back.

A fight broke out between them, which took place in the hostel courtyard, during which three of the attackers ran away, leaving one of their own behind.

The foreigners living in the hostel called an ambulance, which arrived and took one of the attackers, who was injured, to hospital.

When he arrived at the hospital, he gave a false name, did not explain the circumstances of the incident, and did not report the bodily injuries  and, after receiving the necessary medical care, fled in an unknown direction.

The chronology of events, all the circumstances of the incident, how a group of unknown persons chased a group of foreign citizens, how they entered the hostel and how the fight took place with the participation of both parties was recorded on the video surveillance cameras.

As a result of the fight that took place in the hostel, the Internal Affairs Department of the Sverdlovsk district opened a criminal case under Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic (hooliganism by a group of persons by prior conspiracy).

Four foreign citizens were detained on the charge of hooliganism and placed in a temporary detention centre:
A.M., born in 2000, A.M., born in 1993, A.A., born in 2002, and S.H., born in 2003.

The following persons filed complaints about the open confiscation of property 
- E.A., born in 2004, suffered physical injuries, 
- H.A., born in 2003, was deprived of US$1250 and an iPhone 15 ProMax,
- A.M., born 2003, was robbed of US$1550 and a bag.

In the course of the investigation, two of the four people who attacked foreigners in the hostel were identified. 
1.    Mukaev Nursultan Zholdoshbekovich Mukayev, born in 2006, from the Kemin district. 
2. Shermatov Tilek Sardarbek Sardarbekovich, born in Kemin district in 2005.
The police are currently working to establish the whereabouts of the above two persons and the identities of others.

On 17 May 2024, a video of a fight that took place in the courtyard of a hostel on Ogonbaeva Street in Bishkek was published on the Instagram page of "News Kg".

The video did not explain the true circumstances of the incident, which caused a public outcry and mass discontent among young people, leading to local riots. 

In the evening of 18 May 2024, young people dissatisfied with the events began to gather at the intersection of Kurmanzhan-Datka Street and Chui Avenue, and by 10 p.m. the number of people gathered had grown from 500 to 700. 

The rally participants demanded that the law enforcement authorities should take appropriate action against those responsible for the fight in the courtyard of the hostel on A. Ogonbaeva Street. 

The situation was cleared up on the spot, and after a while the crowd dispersed.

At night, taking advantage of the situation, third parties, aiming to destabilize the situation, began to spread false information through messenger groups that there had been casualties, the number of people allegedly killed by our citizens.

The information about casualties is FALSE  and does not correspond to reality. 

Attention! 

The Ministry of Internal Affairs calls on citizens, residents of Bishkek and guests of the capital not to believe false information and not to be provoked. 

We remind those who are involved in spreading false information not to mislead the public. Otherwise they will be prosecuted.

Press Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs