KARASU, Uzbekistan – Uzbek security forces easily regained control over the border town of Karasu yesterday, bringing at least a temporary end to the violence and unrest that had engulfed eastern Uzbekistan after the reported massacre of anti-government protesters in nearby Andijan last Friday.

Residents said heavily armed troops entered the town of 20,000 in the early hours and met little resistance. They arrested rebel leaders, including a number of Islamic extremists who claimed to be behind the uprising.

By early afternoon, Uzbek border guards were back at their posts after five days absence and a military helicopter circled overhead. Residents crossing the border estimated that about 200 soldiers had returned to the town.

“I woke up this morning and the police were back. There are now lots of soldiers patrolling the streets,” said one pensioner, who was afraid to give even his first name, after crossing from the Uzbek side.

Residents of Karasu chased authorities out of town and torched government buildings on Saturday after hearing of the violence in Andijan, 50 miles away.

Uzbek authorities claim that that 169 people were killed in Andijan, mostly “bandits” and “terrorists” who had stormed a prison and seized government buildings. But eyewitnesses and human rights groups have put the death toll much higher. Yesterday, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan said that as many as 1,000 unarmed civilians may have been killed in the recent unrest.

Uzbekistan’s authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, has been under increasing international pressure to account for reports of staggering civilian deaths and foreign leaders are demanding an international investigation of the incident.

That may have played a role in the softer touch exercised in reclaiming Karasu and compromises authorities seem willing to make with residents.

Authorities apparently gave in to demands that the police, border, and tax officials in Karasu be replaced and that a bridge link to Kyrgyzstan, rebuilt after the uprising, remain in place.

“Uncorrupted officials will be appointed here that the people will not oppose,” the head of the Karasu district on the Kyrgyz side, Habibullah Babanov, said after talks with his Uzbek counterpart.

Mr. Babanov said authorities on the Uzbek side have been ordered to keep open the bridge – a lifeline of trade between the two sides of the town. Mr. Kamirov closed the bridge two years ago in an effort to confine Uzbeks to their side of the border. Hundreds were crossing yesterday, laden with cheap clothes and consumer goods for resale in Uzbekistan.

Residents of both sides were also cut off from family members after the bridge was closed and many said yesterday that unrest will erupt again if the government tries to close it in the future.

“Karimov has to keep this bridge open or there will be more disorder,” a 37-year-old resident of the Kyrgyz side who has more than a dozen relatives across the border, Tovakel Sadvaldiev, said.

The fate of Karasu’s rebel leaders was unclear. Among those arrested was a wealthy farmer and Islamic radical who had claimed to control the town, Bakhtiyar Gulamjamogli. Mr. Gulamjamogli, who also used the last name Rakhimov with reporters, told The New York Sun earlier this week that he wanted to free the people of Karasu from “slavery” and to establish an Islamic state in the region. He claimed hundreds of supporters would fight to defend the town, but it was unclear how much influence he had.

In any event, no one expected to ever see him again.

“He was brave to speak up and tell the truth,” a resident of the Kyrgyz side, Odil Akhmajanov, 48, said. “Now he will disappear. You cannot say these kind of things on the other side.”

The recent violence has been the worst in Uzbekistan since the country gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It has prompted hundreds of Uzbeks to flee to Kyrgyzstan and experts are warning that thousands more could flood the country.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry yesterday admonished Kyrgyzstan for what it called weak border controls that led to “serious riots.”

“The local Kyrgyz authorities don’t control the situation and [it] may spin out of control if they continue to take unnecessary steps,” the ministry said.

Refugees say they are terrified of returning to Uzbekistan, where human rights groups accuse police of torturing and murdering opponents of the Karimov regime. The Kyrgyz government is wrestling with the issue of whether to allow the refugees to stay – a move that is sure to anger its powerful neighbor – or send them back.