Journalist slain in Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Journalist Alisher Saipov has been shot and killed in Osh, a city in southern Kyrgyzstan, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

The human rights organization identified Saipov as "an independent journalist whose reporting criticized human rights abuses in Kyrgyzstan and neighboring Uzbekistan."

Saipov, 26, was said to be walking with a friend Wednesday near the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty bureau when a gunman approached them and shot Saipov once in the leg and twice in the head.

Holly Cartner, Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia director, said the slaying "smacks of retribution" for Saipov's reporting.

"He was a courageous journalist committed to exposing human rights abuses, particularly by the Uzbek government," said Cartner.

Saipov was a regular contributor to Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other news organizations. He began publishing in May a weekly Uzbek language newspaper that covered politics, human rights and religious persecution in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said.