ALMATY, Kazakhstan — A journalist in western Kazakhstan has been stabbed and shot in an attack that his colleagues say may have been motivated by his reporting.
Raul Uporov, a photographer at Uralskaya Nedelya, said Friday that witnesses saw five people attacking Lukpan Akhmedyarov outside his home late at night.
Uporov says Akhmedyarov underwent a three-hour operation to treat at least eight deep wounds all over his body and that his condition is stable.
Uralskaya Nedelya said on its website that the attack may have been linked to the victim's civic activism.
"We knew that he was being watched, as were we," the website, Uralskweek.kz, quoted chief editor Tamara Yeslyamova as saying.
Assaults on reporters are not uncommon in the country, but the attack on Akhmedyarov is unusually brutal.
(AP, Reuters)
