Kyrgyz police Tuesday afternoon fired tear gas at thousands gathered to demand constitutional reform in the former Soviet republic’s capital, the DPA news agency reported on Tuesday quoting Kyrgyz news agencies. Casualties were reported, with a correspondent from Russian television channel NTV saying ambulances had been called to remove those who had been injured from the scene.

No exact number of casualties or official confirmation was given.

The police action was meant to prevent an estimated 2,000 opposition protesters from clashing with a similar number of pro-government demonstrators gathered near the parliament building, Kyrgyzstan’s Akipress agency said.

With increased numbers of special forces troops deployed around government buildings, two groups of 10 soldiers fired tear gas canisters at the crowd from AK-47 automatic rifles, the news agency reported.

Kyrgyz security chief Murat Sutalinov said protesters would be cleared from the streets of Bishkek, the capital, Tuesday evening.

The longer-term political fate of the Central Asian nation was unclear. Large-scale rallies began last Thursday after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev failed to accept a new constitution that would limit executive powers.

Since then, not a day has passed without pro-reform demonstrators taking to the streets. Roughly 200 tents have been set up on squares in the center of Bishkek.

On Tuesday, a Kyrgyz national holiday, opposition lawmakers told a crowd gathered on the central Alatoo Square that a parliamentary committee had passed the new constitution.

“The creation of the (special committee) and acceptance of the constitution were a necessary step from our side, dictated by the developing political situation in the country,” said Deputy Kubatbek Baibolov, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

But the government refused to recognize the committee’s legitimacy, saying the new constitution would not be passed before protesters dispersed.

“The government is working, the president is working. It is only the parliament that has problems,” Bakiyev said in Russian at a news conference.

“The constitution should be passed not when a crowd of demonstrators is standing beneath our windows, but only in peaceful conditions,” Prime Minister Felix Kulov, formerly a political rival of Bakiyev but now mired with him in the constitutional crisis, said.

The opposition has yet to win the clear lion’s share of the country’s support. The pro-government rally, dubbed For Stability in a play on the For Reforms opposition party, attracted its own healthy share of demonstrators on Bishkek’s Old Square.

It was unclear whether there was any pressure applied to increase support for the government.

Bakiyev said Tuesday that he was ready to discuss the constitution with the opposition and that he had no intention of disbanding the parliament.

Bishkek itself was otherwise relatively peaceful Tuesday. Streets were open to traffic, and public transport functioned normally, Interfax reported.

The crisis is the worst Bakiyev has faced since taking over in the poverty-stricken nation of 5 million in March 2005.

The current president came to power in the Tulip Revolution then in which former president Askar Akayev was ousted amid charges of corruption and abuse of office.

Akayev had ruled the mountainous nation wedged between Kazakhstan and China since it gained independence after the Soviet collapse of 1991, DPA news agency reports.

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