Recounting the incident to a Vremya correspondent, Asil said, two people in an Opel car - the driver wearing a sports suit and a man in police uniform - detained his brother on his way home from the migration police office. After spending half an hour at the Al-Farabi district police department, they brought Hurshid to his flat, where they immediately started to search the flat, allegedly for heroin. All the brothers’ attempts to explain their special status, showing them their paper, were in vain. The man in uniform took the money, a mobile phone and glasses that he had found in the flat and demanded that Hurshid follow them to the car.

"I thought he was being taken to a police department, and asked: ’Tell me your names so that I know where to find my brother.’ At that time, the man in uniform, jumped out of the car and assaulted me shaking his fists. He hit me in the stomach. The pain was terrible. My breathing stopped. Then he kicked me in the kidney. I could not even move for some time," the article said, quoting Asil, who is now in hospital with beaten kidney.

"In half an hour, Hurshid returned home. The brothers decided to part to different directions. Asil does not know where Hurshid is now," it said.

"Human rights activists in Shymkent say that this is the first time that they have ever come across such an outrageous violation of the rights of the people, who are protected under the mandate of the UNHCR. The fate of the Mukhtorovs is now under the close focus of international human rights organizations," the article concluded.