Uzbekistan lifts state of emergency in Karakalpakstan after protest deaths
Source: Reuters
LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Wednesday signed a decree to lift a state of emergency in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, where at least 18 people were killed when security forces broke up protests earlier this month.
Mirziyoyev said on his website that the emergency measures, which included a curfew, were being lifted from 5 a.m on Thursday (midnight GMT on Wednesday) because order had been restored.
He had declared a month-long state of emergency on July 2 after protests erupted over a proposal to strip the republic of its autonomous status.
The authorities said 14 protesters and four law enforcement officers were killed in the violence, which it blamed on unspecified "foreign forces". It was the deadliest unrest since 2005 in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet Central Asian state with a record of clamping down hard on dissent.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/uzbekistan-lifts-state-emergency-karakalpakstan-after-unrest-2022-07-20/
