However, the Uzbek government did not immediately confirm the reports, as earlier on Friday it said in a statement that the health of Karimov, who has been in the hospital since last Saturday, had sharply deteriorated.
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Speculation over the president’s condition has swept the very tightly-controlled Central Asian nation since Sunday when officials said he had been hospitalised, with opposition media based overseas claiming he had already died.
Reuters is reporting this on Friday, citing diplomatic sources.
The strongman’s funeral will be held in his home city of Samarkand tomorrow as the country begins three days of mourning, the statement said, with Uzbekistan now facing its greatest period of uncertainty in its post-Soviet history.
Official reticence over Karimov’s death reflects the deeply opaque nature of his rule over the country since its 1991 independence from the Soviet Union.
Karimov, 78, suffered a brain haemorrhage on Saturday according to his daughter, and the Tashkent government has since remained silent about his condition, prompting speculation that the veteran authoritarian leader may have died.
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani sent a message to Nigmatilla Yuldoshev, said to be the acting president of Uzbekistan, offering condolences for Karimov’s death, according to a posting on Mr Rouhani’s website.
The Kyrgyz diplomat told the AP the country’s prime minister also had been invited to Karimov’s funeral.
Mr. Karimov has no clear successor.
Pranab Mukherjee extended greetings to the Republic of Uzbekistan on the eve of its Independence Day.
The instructions were issued late on September 1 amid what appeared to be rushed preparations in Samarkand, where central streets were blocked off as cleaning and apparent construction work took place.
Other frontrunners for his position include Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his deputy, Rustam Azimov. Human Rights Watch’s 2016 report on the nation highlighted how the state forces millions of citizens to harvest cotton there under exploitative conditions.
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Amnesty International says Uzbekistan’s “repressive regime” is unlikely to change after Karimov’s death.
