Uzbek authorities labeled a Karakalpak group as extremist and banned it in February, the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights said citing Moscow-based human rights defender Vitaly Ponomaryov.
According to a statement from Ponomaryov, the Alga Qaraqalpaqstan (Forward Karakalpakstan) group was banned on February 22.
The group is an unregistered political party with thousands of members that promotes the independence of Karakalpakstan from Uzbekistan.
Karakalpaks are a Central Asian Turkic-speaking people. Their region used to be an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming autonomous within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1930 and then part of Uzbekistan in 1936.
The fact that the group was banned became known during the trial of Karakalpak activist Parahat Musapbarov, who was sentenced to 6 years in prison in late May on a number of charges, including taking part in the activities of the banned group.
Karakalpak activists have been under pressure in Uzbekistan since mass rallies in Karakalpakstan's capital, Nukus, in July 2022. Thousands of people protested Tashkent's plans to change the constitution in a way that would have undermined the republic's right to self-determination.
SEE ALSO: The Kazakh-Uzbek 'Tandem': Good For Central Asia, Not So Good For Karakalpak ActivistsThe protests were violently dispersed. Uzbek authorities said at the time that 21 people died during the protests, but the Austrian-based Freedom for Eurasia human rights group said at least 70 people were killed during the unrest.
In January last year, an Uzbek court sentenced 22 Karakalpak activists to prison terms on charges that included undermining the constitutional order for taking part in the protests.
In March 2023, another 39 Karakalpak activists accused of taking part in the protests in Nukus were convicted, with 28 of them sentenced to prison terms of between 5 and 11 years. Eleven defendants were handed parole-like sentences.
The violence forced Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev to make a rare about-face and scrap the proposal to change the constitution.