Uzbek President In Intensive Care After Brain Haemorrhage: Daughter

MOSCOW, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th August, 2016) : Strongman Uzbek President islam Karimov, who has dominated the Central Asian nation for over 25 years, is in intensive care after suffering a brain haemorrhage, his younger daughter said Monday. "My father was hospitalised after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage on Saturday morning, and is now receiving treatment in an intensive care unit," Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, Uzbekistan's ambassador to UNESCO, wrote on Instagram of the 78-year-old leader. She added that "his condition is considered stable" but that "at the moment it is too early to make any predictions about his future health." Karimov's press service on Sunday announced that the Central Asian leader -- long dogged by rumours of ill health -- had been hospitalised, without giving details.

The former Soviet apparatchik, whose brutal crackdown on dissent has been widely criticised by rights groups, has been at the helm of the strategic country bordering Afghanistan from since before it gained independence from Moscow in 1991. The wily leader has played off Russia, China and the West against each other to ensure Uzbekistan avoided total isolation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists President Vladimir Putin was "deeply grieved by the illness of the Uzbek president" and was being kept informed of his state through diplomatic channels and the media. "We value our relationship with Uzbekistan," said Peskov. "In this case we would really like to receive only positive news on the president's state of health."