The name of Alisher Saipov [also Soyipov], a young journalist who was killed by unknown criminals in the centre of the Kyrgyz town of Osh, is in everyone’s mouth. Some people are trying to take advantage of this tragedy, Namangan Haqiqati reported.

Although Alisher Saipov was not very well known, many people are aware of his provocative speeches. To be more specific, this person was never tired of slandering Uzbekistan. Although he considered himself truthful, his claims lacked substance and were not corroborated by evidence. There was the impression that he acted on somebody’s orders.

Here, we have no intention to write bad things about Alsiher Saipov, who was shot dead by an unknown person in the town of Osh on 24 October. Because it is alien to our people to remember negative qualities of a dead person.

However, you will be stunned by reports posted on some websites. These say that Uzbekistan had a hand in the death of Alisher Saipov. Before the investigation was launched, some thugs competed in slandering Uzbekistan. Even the [following] words of Dzhantoro Satybaldiyev [the governor of Kyrgyzstan’s Osh Region] meant nothing for them: "I ask representatives of the media to avoid hampering the investigation by being too emotional."

It seems that they are aiming to undermine Uzbekistan’s reputation before the real motive behind the murder is established. Gentlemen who accuse our country of murdering Alisher Saipov are our enemies, who hate the serenity and happiness of our country and nation. The fact that they are trying to exploit the death of an ally for their malicious and vile ends shows that they lost their face.

Reports by news sources which have a grudge against our motherland and journalists who are carrying out acts of sabotage are nothing other than fiction, provocation and libel. We will try to prove this.

First of all, Alisher Saipov was not a great man, as his associates claim. He was just a person with malicious intentions, who, from a secluded location, poured dirt on Uzbekistan, which is steadily progressing along its own path of development. The country, its government and the law-enforcement agencies paid very little attention to provocations by people like Saipov. It is just that our countrymen, who are ready to sacrifice their life for their motherland and nation, are expressing their views on his fictions which were published in the media and on the Internet, as our journalists and scholars have the right to do so, in accordance with democratic principles.

Our country also upholds the slogan "Fighting the idea with an idea". Never was a bullet shot at a person who expressed an individual view and the same will be true for the future. We have laws forbidding inhumane actions such as violence and cruelty.

There is one other claim by the slanderers that is irritating. They talk nonsense when they say Saipov’s Siyosat [Politics] newspaper was popular in Uzbekistan. In reality, this is also a lie.

Death is inevitable and cannot be prevented by one. How life will end depends only on God. There is nothing to be done if such a demise was preordained for Saipov. What benefit can Uzbekistan get from the death of this person in the first place? Nothing!