Footages surfaced on the social media of dozens of teenagers in Tashkent walking the streets shouting Aslam is the Power on Saturday.
Who is Aslam?
Aslambek Bakhromov, 19, a PUBG YouTuber, aka Aslamboi, with 376 thousand subscribers on YouTube and 136 thousand on Instagram.
He is renowned for his 10-11-hour streams, and also represents the Energy Gaming esports club.
What happened?
On his Instagram page he announced a plan to meet with fans on February 25 at 15:00 in Magic City park. Over 100 young people had gathered to meet him.
Footages on social media showed him being forcibly taken away from the meeting place by National Guard officers.
A commentary by the Tashkent city police department says that Aslambek Bakhromov, a resident of the Jizzakh province, organized a meeting with fans at the Magic City, where he wanted to give away gifts.
“About 130-140 minors gathered at the meeting and violated public order by making a fuss. Officers of the National Guard and police took A. Bakhromov to the police department in order to prevent. While the officers were taking A. Bakhromov away, several minors followed him to the police car. Then all those gathered were dispersed,” the message says.
In the footages, a group of teenagers were shown yelling "Aslam is the power". Eyewitnesses report that young people also demanded the release of the streamer.
Aslamboi himself in his Telegram account said that he would be offline for three or four days.
The Chilanzar district police department issued an administrative protocol under Violation of the procedure for organizing, holding meetings, rallies, street processions or demonstrations which is penalized with a fine from 60 to 80 basic settlement units (from 1,600 to 2,200 USD), or administrative arrest up to 15 days. Documents were sent to the district court.
The whole story suggests that the authorities still seem very paranoiac about any rallies.
