Still, the stoicism occasionally broke as people voiced rare public outrage at Uzbek President Islam Karimov, the country's current and Soviet-era leader who has displayed little desire for democratic or economic reform.
"Why didn't Karimov come here to see the victims?" asked one woman.
With no live media coverage or officials giving any news conferences, rumors compounded the fear and anger.
At the end of the day, the official version of events finally made it to state-run TV.
The evening news, which distrustful Uzbeks cynically refer to as "the news of paradise," led with Karimov meeting the former Lithuanian president. Tuesday's violence merited only a brief statement.
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