Image by Flickr user vpzone (CC-usage).

BREAKING NEWS: Saturday evening horrified the sleepy capital of Uzbekistan by gunfire happening almost simultaneously in different parts of the city. Ferghana.ru claimed(ENG) the gunfire had been heard in at least three districts of the city located miles from one another. People living in those districts witnessed dead bodies left in the middle of the streets.

Embassies in Tashkent try to get information from official sources without any success but there is no doubt that something disturbing happened last night. People living in the city districts where the shooting happened report on police raids and several arrests of those who did not have proper city registration documents. The capital is surrounded by numerous checkpoints with heavy machinery making it extremely difficult for anyone outside of Tashkent to enter the city.

UPDATE (August 31, 5:15 GMT)

The Uzbek Ministry of Internal Affairs released a statement on Sunday, August 30, where it described the shooting as a “special operation” of security forces in the Old City district against two armed men who were allegedly involved in a series of killings that happened in Tashkent recently. The two were killed during the shooting. The ministry also dismissed any information on gunfire in the districts of Chilanzar (Chilonzor) and Algoritm.

UPDATE (August 30, 20:30 GMT)

People report police raids in Chilanzar (Chilonzor) and Old City districts of Tashkent. The targets of the raids are migrant workers from different regions of the country who are usually missing any proper work authorization.

The Uzbek government did not issue any statement regarding the incidents. A source at the Prosecutor general’s office in Tashkent carefully admitted that the incidents are “likely to be staged” by “forces outside of Uzbekistan.” Taking into account the recent Uzbek-Kyrgyz clashes (ENG), it won’t be unusual if Uzbekistan blames Kygryzstan for harboring “dangerous elements.”

The Voice of Freedom reports (ENG) that the gunmen were allegedly involved in the recent assassination of the imam of Tashkent (ENG) and the head of anti-terrorism department at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (ENG) in August this year.

The U.S. Embassy in Tashkent issued a warden message (ENG) where it confirmed a “substantial increase in police activity” in the Old City district of Tashkent.

The information of the shooting is still scarce. Michael Hancock provides some interesting observations on his blog (ENG).

Michael makes a very good remark on Tashkent not being L.A. It is certainly true but one also has to remember that smuggling weapons to Uzbekistan from, say, Kazakhstan where they are legally sold, is not so problematic. The level of corruption on Kazakh-Uzbek border is so high that with enough motivation one can smuggle anything to and from Uzbekistan. It costs $5 in bribes to border patrol guards to cross the border illegally from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan. It costs another $20 to ride in a “special” taxi from Saragach (Uzbek town on the border with Kazakhstan) to Tashkent through all checkpoints and without any stops.

Editor’s note: There has been a spate of violent attacks in Tashkent since January.  During August Tashkent’s imam khatib was stabbed and there have been other clashes with security forces.  Click on the photo above to read Registan.net’s coverage of the incident.