From
AP story
Two women blew themselves up at a children's store and bus stop in the Uzbek capital Monday, the first suicide attacks in this U.S.-allied nation in Central Asia and the finale to 12 hours of mayhem that killed 19 people.
Secularlist dictator Islam Karimov has brutally suppressed opposition groups and in particular Islamic oriented ones. The U.S. government has rewarded him with hundreds of millions of dollars for allowing us to use Uzbek airbases to sortie into Afghanistan. (I wrote more on this ugly situation
a while back.)
So that it's no surprise that:
The tiny opposition, banned by Karimov's authoritarian regime from working openly, feared the bloodshed would deepen a widespread crackdown against dissent and independent Islam that has led to the jailings of thousands and evoked international condemnation.
More tragedy and repression to come ...
The violence continued on Tuesday when several people were reported wounded in an explosion and shootout between police and alleged terrorists outside the capital Tashkent.
After Monday's suicide attacks, a man in the hallway at nearby First City Hospital was crying, "Where is my daughter? Is she alive or dead?"
A nurse tried to comfort him before a doctor approached and scolded her, telling her not to give any information to anyone -- even victims' relatives. Another government official down the hallway also warned doctors and nurses not to talk.