ALMATY, Kazakhstan—With about 12,000 people arrested after anti-government protests in Kazakhstan last week, friends and relatives of those held by police waited outside a jail Wednesday, hoping to learn their fate. Some even went to morgues to see if a loved one was among the scores killed in the unprecedented violence in the Central Asian nation. Authorities have refused to allow relatives or lawyers to see those in custody, giving little information about them, according to human rights activists. The demonstrations began Jan. 2 in the western part of Kazakhstan over a sharp rise in fuel prices and spread throughout the country, apparently reflecting wider discontent with the government, which declared a state of emergency for the whole country and asked a Russia-led military alliance to send in troops to help restore order. Another 1,678 people were arrested in the past 24 hours in Almaty, the largest city that was …