The most likely reason for the official silence was that top government officials had been unable to decide on the succession and did not want to announce that Karimov was dead until they could also say who would replace him, at least temporarily.
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Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has described Karimov’s death as “a great loss for the people of Uzbekistan”.
“We express our deep condolences over the death of Uzbek President Islam Karimov”.
The Office of the President, ARG Palace, said “President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani left Kabul this morning for Samarqand to attend the funeral prayers of late President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan”.
“I am confident that in joint efforts we will keep developing Russian-Uzbek cooperation for the benefit of our fraternal peoples”, the president said.
His funeral will be held on Saturday in the historic town of Samarkand, where he was born, a government statement said, adding that a three-day period of mourning would start on the same day.
President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov has died aged 78 after suffering a stroke.
“The death of Islam Karimov may open a pretty unsafe period of unpredictability and uncertainty in Uzbekistan”, Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Tass news agency on Friday.
The veteran leader has run the Central Asian nation since 1989 and almost half of Uzbekistan’s 32 million citizens were born while he was in power.
On Saturday thousands of Uzbeks lined the streets in Tashkent as a cortege carried Karimov’s coffin to the airport, from which it was to be flown to Samarkand, an ancient Silk Road city renowned for its Islamic architecture.
Right groups have repeatedly accused his regime of torturing opponents and using forced labour in the lucrative cotton sector. The head of Uzbekistan’s Senate would run the country after his death for three months until new elections.
Karimov was one of a handful of Soviet strongmen who clung to power after their homelands gained independence from Moscow in 1991.
“The death of Islam Karimov may open a pretty risky period of unpredictability and uncertainty in Uzbekistan”, Pushkov told the Tass news agency on Friday.
Mr Karimov was known as a tyrant with an explosive temper and a penchant for cruelty.
“He left a bad legacy”.
Uzbek opposition blogger Nadezhda Atayeva said Friday that Uzbek authorities appeared to be cracking down on communication channels.
Loyalist Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev will head the committee charged with organising his funeral, suggesting that he could be in line to take over from Karimov.
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On the sidelines of the funeral, Mirziyoyev met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
