ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Two activists from Uzbekistan's Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan are reported to have been detained in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty.
Almaty-based Karakalpak activist Akylbek Muratov told RFE/RL on September 14 that two Karakalpak men, Koshkarbai Toremuratov and Jangeldi Jaksymbetov, were detained a day earlier.
"We have a Karakalpak diaspora center. One of its members witnessed how Jangeldi Jaksymbetov was taken away by a police patrol yesterday," Muratov said, adding that hours later men in civilian clothes who appeared to be Uzbek took Toremuratov from his apartment.
According to Muratov, Toremuratov's wife told him her husband telephoned her later saying he was told he faces charges of "damaging constitutional order" and the "preparation of materials damaging social order."
Muratov added that the two men's whereabouts are unknown.
Kazakh Interior Ministry spokesman Oleg Ivashenko told RFE/RL that he has "no information about the situation."
The reported detentions may be linked to mass protests in Karakalpakstan in early July after changes initiated by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev were proposed to the Uzbek Constitution. The changes included the removal of an article that guaranteed the right of Karakalpakstan to seek independence should its citizens choose to do so in a referendum.
The European Union has called for an independent investigation into the violent events in Karakalpakstan that, according to Uzbek authorities, left 21 persons dead.
Karakalpaks are a Turkic-speaking people of Central Asia. Their region used to be an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming an autonomy within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1930 and then part of Uzbekistan in 1936.