Earlier the government, in a rare comment on the president’s health, admitted he had been hospitalised.
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Ex-Soviet nation Uzbekistan has plunged into unchartered territory after strongman leader Islam Karimov, who has dominated the country for over 25 years, was rushed into intensive care with a brain haemorrhage.
The president’s daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, confirmed on Monday that her father was seriously ill.
In a Facebook post, Daniil Kislov, the editor of Fergana.ru, said that the “best denial” of Karimov’s death would be to “show him alive”. Once seen as his most likely heir, his daughter Gulnara is under house arrest for unclear reasons possibly connected with corrupt deals for mobile phone services.
The Tashkent government has made no statement since saying on Sunday that Mr Karimov, who has no obvious successor, was in hospital. In keeping with the Soviet tradition, his successor, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, headed the funeral commission.
Independence Day parties – which the president would consistently attend – are to be held on 1 September.
Karimov’s government has frequently been accused of human rights abuses, including forced child labor, the killing of unarmed protesters in a 2005 massacre in the city of Andijan and even boiling protesters alive. The country has struggled to keep up, in terms of average incomes, with its neighbors such as oil exporter Kazakhstan and at least 2 million Uzbeks are estimated to be working overseas, mostly in Russian Federation, to provide for their families. He studied engineering and rose up the Communist Party ladder to become head of Soviet Uzbekistan in 1989.
In 1995, Karimov’s presidential term was extended again until 2000.
His mandate was extended for a further five years in 1995 by referendum, and he won re-election in 2000, 2007 and 2015.
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The only precedent for what is happening now is when the long-ruling dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, better known as Turkmenbashi, or Father of the Turkens, suddenly died in 2006. “In this case we would really like to receive only positive news on the president’s state of health”.
