Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of a prominent Kyrgyz Muslim leader who was killed in a police operation to hunt down extremists in the country's south, officials and witnesses said Tuesday.
Relatives carrying the body of Imam Mokhammadrafik Kamalov in a coffin wrapped in a white cloth made a circle around his home town of Kara Suu late Monday followed by more than 3,000 mourners, police said. They chanted "God is Great!" and "Down with democracy!," witnesses said.
Kamalov, 53, was killed Sunday night in the nearby city of Osh along with two suspected Islamic radicals during an operation to track down men suspected of attacking Kyrgyz and Tajik border posts in May, killing nine people.
Authorities closely watched the funeral procession for possible unrest, but police said there were no disturbances.
Kamalov, who presided over one of the most popular mosques in Kara Suu on the Uzbek border, had repeatedly denied any links with Islamic radicals. He was a relative of two prominent dissident Uzbek imams, one of whom had died in jail and another who disappeared several years ago.
According to police, Kamalov and the two others tried to escape in a car on Sunday, ignoring commands to stop. The two killed alongside the imam were Tajik citizens believed to be members of the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, officials said.
They were wanted in their home country on murder charges.
Kyrgyz and Tajik authorities have killed several suspected extremists and rounded up dozens of others in a security clampdown following a series of attacks along the border in May. Kamalov was among those arrested after the attacks, but he was quickly released.