Uzbeks Buried Strongman Karimov

(160904) — SAMARKAND, Sept. 4, 2016 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli speaks at the funeral of Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Samarkand Sept. 3, 2016. Zhang Gaoli, special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, attended the funeral of Islam Karimov in his home city of Samarkand on Saturday. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) (wyo)

Uzbekistan has buried long-ruling President Islam Karimov, a day after the government announced the death of the authoritarian leader following a stroke at the age of 78, RFERL reported.

Karimov was laid to rest on September 3 after an Islamic funeral ceremony — attended by thousands of people, including foreign heads of states — on the historic Registan Square in his hometown of Samarkand.

Foreign dignitaries, including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, attended the ceremony, which began with religious prayers.

Neighboring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sent their prime ministers to the funeral.

Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev, the head of the commission organizing the funeral, gave a speech in the ceremony and paid tribute to Karimov, whom he called the “founder of the state” and a “great and dear son of the nation.”

Earlier that day, state television channels showed Karimov’s coffin — draped in the national flag — arriving at Samarkand International Airport after departing from Tashkent hours earlier.

Karimov’s wife, Tatyana Karimova, and his younger daughter, Lola Tillyaeva-Karimova, were walking behind the coffin.

Karimov’s elder daughter, Gulnara — who fell out of favor and was reportedly place under house arrest in 2014 amid corruption allegations — did not appear at the ceremony.

Thousands of people were lined up along the roads as Karimov’s funeral cortege made its way through the city from the airport to what the state TV described as the president’s ancestral home.

Earlier in the day, similar scenes were seen in Tashkent, where thousands lined up along the city’s main thoroughfare as a cortege carried Karimov’s casket to the airport.

Many mourners held flowers, mostly red roses, which they laid on the road as the funeral train, which set out at 6 a.m. local time, drove by on its way to the airport.

State television showed soldiers loading a coffin onto a plane for what it described as Karimov’s final journey to Samarkand.