Authorities in Karakalpakstan’s Uzbek region say thousands are being treated in hospital after being injured during the unrest on Friday.
The regional health minister said hospitals in the provincial capital Nukus were overcrowded with patients. Clashes with security forces broke out as protesters took to the streets over plans to withdraw the area’s right to secession.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev now says that the plans will not be carried out. But in a meeting with local public representatives on Sunday, he accused them of trying to destabilize and weaken the situation in the Central Asian state.
He accused the organizers of the protest of trying to “seize the buildings of local government bodies” to obtain weapons.
Uzbekistan has a reputation for being one of the most repressive republics of the former Soviet Union, repressing dissent of any kind. Karakalpakstan, a desert region near the Aral Sea of less than two million people, has autonomous status in a country of 32 million.
Reports said that the police and army have been patrolling the streets of Nukus since the emergency declaration. Pulat Ahunov, an exiled opposition politician, said people could not move around and get information because of the state of emergency.
Mr Ahunov, chairman of the opposition Burlik party, said he feared the situation could escalate into an ethnic conflict between Uzbeks and Karakalpaks, a minority group with their language.
“Overall, I think that the situation is starting to stabilise, but there is another kind of danger. There have been facts of ethnic clashes between the Karakalpaks and the Uzbeks.
“The situation can totally spin out of control. It will not be about the status of Karakalpakstan, it will be about a conflict between the Karakalpaks and the Uzbeks. It is the most dangerous thing.”