Tashkent: Eighteen people were killed and 243 other wounded during unrest in Uzbekistan's autonomous province of Karakalpakstan after clashes broke out with the security forces last week when protesters took to the streets over plans to withdraw the territory’s right to secede, Uzbek authorities said on Monday.

The protesters believe that Karakalpakstan may lose its right to secede from Uzbekistan if amended articles of the constitution were approved. According to official reports, the protesters had marched through the provincial capital of Nukus last Friday and tried to occupy local government buildings leading to widespread violent protests in the country.

“In Nukus, as a result of the riots, 18 people died from serious injuries,” said Abror Mamatov, the prosecutor of the Uzbek Prosecutor General’s Office.

The officials in the Uzbek region of Karakalpakstan say thousands of people are being treated in hospitals, after being injured during unrest on Friday. Security forces had detained 516 people during anti-government demonstrations but have now released many of them, the national guard press office told a briefing.

Protesters fighting for autonomy of the Karakalpakstan region in Uzbekistan capture an armored personnel carrier from the Uzbek Army.

Other videos from the same location show Uzbek soldiers beaten up by a large crowd.

The unrest enters its third day. pic.twitter.com/HLyKu5wPE9
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 3, 2022

Karakalpakstan is mostly a desert region situated on the shores of the Aral Sea. The region with a population of two million people has for decades been a site of environmental disaster. The local community, known as Karakalpaks, is an ethnic minority group whose language is closer to Kazakh than Uzbek.

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President Shavkat Mirziyoyev now says the plans to curtail the autonomy of Karakalpakstan will not be carried out. Announcing the dropping of plans to amend articles of the constitution concerning Karakalpakstan's autonomy and its right to secede, Mirziyoyev also declared a month-long state of emergency in the northwestern province.