Many mourners held flowers, mostly red roses, which they laid on the road as the funeral cortege drove by on its way to the airport.
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After news emerged that Karimov was in hospital rumours flew that Azimov had been placed under house arrest, but they were quickly denied and he has been named as part of Karimov’s funeral committee.
Uzbekistan’s embassy in Azerbaijan will open a book of condolences over the death of Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
The Uzbek Constitution states that if the president dies or is unable to perform his duties the head of the upper chamber of parliament assumes presidential authority for a period of three months.
He was to be buried on Saturday in the ancient city of Samarkand, his hometown, state television said.
He was around 78-year-old and the government did not disclose his death andd only said the he was critically ill.
The Chinese side believes that the Uzbek people will inherit and carry forward Karimov’s unfulfilled wish to make great strides in national construction and revitalization, he said. The body was then taken to the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, another architecturally significant site, for burial.
Karimov was one of a handful of Soviet strongmen who clung to power after their homelands gained independence from Moscow in 1991, and he played Russian Federation, the West and China off against each other. Activists repeatedly denounced him for allegedly torturing and killing opponents, as well as repressing the media.
His death pushes the strategically located landlocked country into a “phase of uncertainty”, the head of the Russian lower house of parliament’s global affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, said Friday.
Karimov cultivated no apparent successor, and his death raised concerns that the predominantly Sunni Muslim country could face prolonged infighting among clans over its leadership, something its Islamic radical movement could exploit.
Both Putin and Medvedev highly praised Karimov’s role in maintaining strategic partnership between Russian Federation and Uzbekistan, as well as in strengthening security and stability in Central Asia, Sputnik reported. Afghan News Agency on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook.
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She said Karimov was committed to the friendship and cooperation between China and Uzbekistan, and made unremitting efforts to promote the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, two-way exchanges, and people-to-people friendship.
