At least 18 killed, hundreds injured in Uzbekistan unrest

At least 18 people were killed and 243 injured during unrest in an autonomous province, according to authorities.

At least 18 people were killed and 243 injured during last week’s unrest in Uzbekistan’s autonomous province of Karakalpakstan, according to the country’s authorities.

The unrest over planned constitutional changes affecting Karakalpakstan’s status poses the most significant challenge yet to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s rule since he rose to power from the post of prime minister in 2016, when his long-serving mentor Islam Karimov died.

Mirziyoyev on Saturday dropped plans to amend articles of the constitution concerning Karakalpakstan’s autonomy and its right to secede, a day after protesters tried to seize local government buildings in the worst bout of violence in nearly 20 years.

The president also declared a monthlong state of emergency in the northwestern province home to Karakalpaks, an ethnic minority group whose language is closer to Kazakh than Uzbek.

“In [the administrative centre] Nukus, 18 people died as a result of serious injuries received during massive disorders,” the Russian news agency Ria Novosti on Monday quoted Abror Mamatov, an official from the state prosecutor’s office, as saying.

Security forces detained 516 people while dispersing the protesters last Friday but have now released many of them, the national guard press office told a briefing.