Kazakhstan
Ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang have been held in China's camps, and witnesses such as Sayragul Sauytbay, who taught in a camp for about 2,500 Kazakhs, fled to Kazakhstan. Kazakh authorities have in turn prosecuted the people who speak up: Serikzhan Bilash of Atajurt was arrested in 2019, and 19 Xinjiang Kazakhs were convicted in 2026 for protesting the jailing of relatives. At home, Kazakhstan allows only mosques under the state Muslim Board, jails Sunni Muslims for alleged Tabligh Jamaat membership (72 convicted in 2015–2018 alone, 12 more jailed in December 2025), fines worshippers for saying "Amen" aloud, keeps girls in headscarves out of school and in 2025 banned face coverings in public.
Key numbers
Who is responsible
The Chinese government (camps in Xinjiang); in Kazakhstan the government, the KNB secret police, police and courts, and the state-controlled Muslim Board; President Tokayev signed the 2025 face-covering ban.
Timeline
- 2011 Religious activity banned in children's camps
- 2015 Wave of Tabligh Jamaat prosecutions
- 2016 Saying "Amen" aloud banned in mosques
- 2017 Court upholds exclusion of headscarved schoolgirls
- 2018 Sayragul Sauytbay tried in Zharkent after fleeing a Xinjiang camp
- 2019 Atajurt's Serikzhan Bilash arrested
- 2025 Face-covering ban signed; 12 Muslims jailed in Konayev
- 2026 19 Xinjiang Kazakhs convicted for protest
Records (25)
Famine in Kazakhstan, 1919-1922
Soviet grain requisitioning (prodrazvyorstka, reintroduced January 1919 under War Communism) and crop failure caused famine in the Kirghiz (Kazakh) ASSR. The population fell from 4.781 million in 1920 to 3.796 million in 1922 through deaths and flight; about one million are estimated to have died.
1,000,000 killed
Decree confiscating 'bai' households, 1928
A decree of 28 August 1928 by the Kazakh ASSR Central Executive Committee and Sovnarkom ordered the confiscation of the largest native herders' property and their deportation, as people who 'hinder the sovietisation of the aul' through their influence.
Source: Wikipedia (ru): Массовые преследования мусульман в СССР (1929—1941)
Asharshylyk: Kazakh famine, 1930-1933
The famine was caused by forced collectivisation, the 'liquidation of the kulaks as a class', higher grain quotas and the seizure of livestock; about 90% of herds were lost and nomads were forced to settle. At least 1.5 million people died, over a third of all Kazakhs; Robert Conquest estimated 2.3 million.
1,500,000–2,300,000 killed
Source: Wikipedia (ru): Голод в Казахстане (1932—1933) · Wikipedia (en): Kazakh famine of 1930–1933
Kazakhs flee the famine, 1930-1933
About one million Kazakhs left the Kazakh ASSR during the famine for other Soviet regions; many others fled to China, Mongolia, Iran and Afghanistan. About 400,000 later returned.
1,000,000 displaced
Zhanalyk mass grave and the Alma-Ata NKVD
In the Great Terror of 1937-38 those condemned in Alma-Ata were shot in the basement of the NKVD and their bodies taken at night to Zhanalyk village; by estimates more than 25,000 Kazakhstanis were shot by the Alma-Ata NKVD. A memorial now stands on the site of the mass grave.
25,000 killed
Source: Zakon.kz · RFE/RL Kazakh Service
Alikhan Bukeikhanov shot
Alikhan Bukeikhanov, leader of the Alash Orda Kazakh national government, was sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court on 27 September 1937 for belonging to a 'terrorist organisation' and shot the same day in Moscow.
1 killed
Akhmet Baitursynov shot
The Kazakh scholar and Alash leader Akhmet Baitursynov was arrested again in October 1937 and shot on 8 December 1937 in Alma-Ata as an 'enemy of the people' by sentence of an NKVD troika.
1 killed
'Chain of the Quran' case, 1940-41
In 1940-41 the NKVD of the Kazakh SSR fabricated the 'Chain of the Quran' case against Muslim clergy and believers from the Kazakh, Turkmen, Uzbek and Tajik SSRs and the RSFSR, accused of forming a 'pan-Islamist insurgent organisation'. 237 people were suspects; 70 were arrested and 12 shot.
12 killed70 detained
Source: Wikipedia (ru): Массовые преследования мусульман в СССР (1929—1941) · Wikipedia (ru): Религия в СССР (1929—1942)
Special settlements of the deported Caucasus peoples
Deported Chechens, Ingush, Karachays and Balkars lived as 'special settlers' without the right to leave, mainly in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. From the deportation to 1 October 1948, 146,892 of them died and 28,120 were born; deaths exceeded births until 1949. In Kyrgyzstan's Jalal-Abad region alone 863 special settlers died by August 1944.
146,892 killed
Jeltoqsan: Alma-Ata protests crushed, December 1986
On 17-18 December 1986 Kazakh youth protested in Alma-Ata after Moscow replaced party leader Dinmukhamed Kunayev with Gennady Kolbin, who had never worked in the Kazakh SSR. Security forces detained 8,500 people; more than 1,700 suffered serious injuries; 99 were convicted, 2 of them sentenced to death. The Kazakh SSR government reported two deaths; sources cited by the US Library of Congress say at least 200 died or were summarily executed, and a KGB officer was quoted as saying 168 were killed.
2–200 killed8,500 detained
Source: Wikipedia (ru): Декабрьские события в Алма-Ате (1986) · Wikipedia (en): Jeltoqsan · Wikipedia (kk): Желтоқсан көтерілісі
Religious activity barred in children's camps
A 2011 amendment bans religious services and meetings in children's camps, and such camps have been raided. Religious leaders are fined if under-18s attend over a parent's objection.
Source: Forum 18: Kazakhstan religious freedom survey, September 2018 (via ecoi.net)
Tabligh Jamaat convictions
Between January 2015 and August 2018 Kazakhstan convicted 72 alleged Tabligh Jamaat adherents for exercising freedom of religion or belief; 51 were jailed and 21 given restricted freedom.
72 detained
Source: Forum 18: Kazakhstan religious freedom survey, September 2018 (via ecoi.net)
Saken Tulbayev jailed
Saken Tulbayev was sentenced in Almaty in July 2015 to 4 years 8 months in a labour camp plus a ban on religious practice; his family say police planted the evidence, and Forum 18 reports he was tortured.
1 detained
Source: Forum 18: Kazakhstan religious freedom survey, September 2018 (via ecoi.net)
Murat Takaumov jailed
On 2 June 2016 Astana's Saryarka District Court No. 2 jailed Murat Takaumov for nine months for alleged Tabligh Jamaat membership, the 31st Muslim convicted on such charges since December 2014.
1 detained
Source: Forum 18: Kazakhstan: 31st criminal conviction since December 2014 (via ecoi.net)
Fines for saying "Amen" aloud and for prayer style
Saying "Amen" aloud in mosques has been banned since November 2016; at least seven people were fined for it in 2018, including Kairat Makhanov in Taraz. In 2017, 22 Muslims were punished for praying in ways that differ from state Muslim Board rules.
Source: Forum 18: Kazakhstan religious freedom survey, September 2018 (via ecoi.net)
Kazakh "political camp" where Sayragul Sauytbay taught
Sayragul Sauytbay was forced to teach Chinese from November 2017 to March 2018 at a camp in Xinjiang that she described as a political camp for ethnic Kazakhs, holding about 2,500 people.
2,500 detained
Source: Wikipedia: Sayragul Sauytbay
Girls in headscarves kept out of school
Schools have increasingly denied education to girls in headscarves under a national uniform with no exceptions; in December 2017 a court rejected parents' suit, saying the rules serve "the internal order of educational establishments".
Source: Forum 18: Kazakhstan religious freedom survey, September 2018 (via ecoi.net)
Serik Dauitbek jailed in Xinjiang
Ethnic Kazakh Muslim Serik Dauitbek was arrested in March 2018 and jailed in June 2018, reportedly for about 17 years, for praying and reading the Koran, along with two other local Kazakhs.
3 detained
Source: Forum 18: Husband jailed in Xinjiang, wife to be jailed from 2027
Sayragul Sauytbay tried in Zharkent
Kazakhstan's KNB arrested Sayragul Sauytbay on 21 May 2018 for crossing from China; at her trial in Zharkent she testified about the camps. On 1 August 2018 she got a six-month suspended sentence and was not deported; she later received asylum in Sweden.
1 detained
Source: Wikipedia: Sayragul Sauytbay · The Diplomat: Sauytbay trial ends in Kazakhstan with surprising release
Serikzhan Bilash arrested, Atajurt office shut
Kazakh police arrested Serikzhan Bilash, whose Atajurt group recorded testimonies of relatives held in Xinjiang camps, and sealed its Almaty office in March 2019. He was charged with "inciting ethnic hatred" and freed on condition he stop his activism.
1 detained
Source: Hong Kong Free Press: Kazakh rights defender Serikjan Bilash arrested · Wikipedia: Serikzhan Bilash
12 Muslims jailed in Konayev
Konayev City Court jailed 12 Sunni Muslims on 22 December 2025 for 1 to 5 years for alleged Tabligh Jamaat membership; five of them had been arrested on 7 December 2024.
12 detained
Source: Forum 18: Hidden camera, 'special measures', trial – jail to follow?
Ban on face coverings in public
President Tokayev signed a law on 30 June 2025 banning clothing that hinders facial recognition in public places; it is read as banning the niqab, with exceptions for medical, weather and sport reasons but not religious ones.
Source: Eurasianet: Muslims in Kazakhstan face ban on facial coverings · Orda.kz: Law banning face-covering clothing receives presidential signature
Alimnur Turganbay detained at Chinese border
Kazakhstan resident Alimnur Turganbay, who in 2019 filmed an appeal for his nephew jailed for praying, was detained by Chinese border officials at Dulata on 23 July 2025; his family were told he got 2 years 6 months.
1 detained
Source: Forum 18: Husband jailed in Xinjiang, wife to be jailed from 2027
19 Xinjiang Kazakhs convicted for protest
Nineteen ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang who protested near Kalzhat on 13 November 2025 against the jailing of relatives in Xinjiang were convicted of "inciting discord" in Taldykorgan on 13 April 2026: 11 got 5 years (two deferred) and 8 restricted freedom. Appeals were rejected on 9 June 2026.
19 detained
Source: Forum 18: Husband jailed in Xinjiang, wife to be jailed from 2027 · Forum 18: Health concerns over Xinjiang exile awaiting jailing
Nine Muslims on trial in Taldykorgan
Nine Sunni Muslims went on trial in Taldykorgan in June 2026 for alleged Tabligh Jamaat membership after police secretly filmed meetings in a home from July 2025; they face up to two years.
Source: Forum 18: Hidden camera, 'special measures', trial – jail to follow? · Forum 18: Health concerns over Xinjiang exile awaiting jailing