The tragic death of Kyrgyz journalist Alisher Saipov in the town of Osh has caused a storm of emotions on Internet websites which specialize in reporting on events taking place in Central Asia and in the print media in a number of countries, Uzbek newspaper Namanganskaya Pravda reported on 27 October.

The murder of the man, who was quite young, at the age of 26, is a disgusting thing in itself. However, this case has immediately been linked to "schemes" by Uzbekistan’s special services. For example, Danil Kislov, the editor-in-chief of the known website Fergana.ru, says so openly. As reported by some news agencies, Mr Kislov directly accused the Uzbek government of Saipov’s death, sounding as if he were its worst enemy.

However, according to reports by the Russian news agency Novosti, Dzhantoro Satybaldiyev, the governor of [Kyrgyzstan’s] Osh Region, urged the public not to make hasty conclusions: "Don’t consider this crime as a politically-motivated murder, or one in reprisal." The governor noted that this stir is "causing an impediment to the investigation".

You will recall that the journalist was killed with three gunshots practically in the centre of the town of Osh at 1900 hours local time on 24 October. Despite his young age, Alisher Saipov came to prominence thanks to his articles about Uzbekistan, which were scandalous. He cooperated with Voice of America, the BBC and with the above-mentioned Fergana.ru news agency.

Saipov ran the Siyosat [Politics] newspaper in which tendentious articles about our country, translated into the Uzbek language, were published. Note that reports that the newspaper was readily available in Uzbekistan and the country’s population was its target audience, are obviously exaggerated.

Many of his colleagues, probably affected by the tragic news, hurried to proclaim the dead man "a great journalist". It is an obvious exaggeration. Saipov’s articles did not particularly stand out against the other numerous articles, including on the Internet. They are remembered only as a one-sided and obvious "reproach" to the Uzbek government, which was not corroborated by any evidence.

There were also reports of a link between Alisher Saipov and the underground Hezb-e Tahrir [a banned Islamic group] in the south of Kyrgyzstan.

In the stir that has ensued it is necessary to pay attention to two circumstances: first, it is evident that various forgotten "opposition" figures and other people of this kind want to be noticed: how could they miss this excellent opportunity to make themselves heard? And these gentlemen do not care about such a lofty thing as the fact that it is not nice, to put it softly, to capitalize on a person’s death.

Second, note that the murder of the journalist was committed in Kyrgyzstan. If the special services of neighbouring Uzbekistan were involved in this crime, it raises the question: "Is Kyrgyzstan no longer a sovereign country?" And such an overt crime is senseless, as is the alleged poisoning of a former employee, Aleksandr Litvinenko, by Russia’s FSB [Federal Security Service]. In such cases [Uzbekistan is electing a new president on 23 December] the death of a foe is more disadvantageous than the continuation of his activities.

We are still hopeful that despite the stir, the law-enforcement agencies of Kyrgyzstan will find the real culprits, not mythical ones.