TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - Police released the wife of an opposition figure after holding her for several hours Wednesday and warning that her husband should drop his plans to run for president, a rights activist said Thursday.

Jahongir Shosalimov, who intends to challenge President Islam Karimov in elections later this year, said several men who identified themselves as anti-terrorism officers had forcibly taken his wife, Gulcherkhra, from her home Wednesday.

She was released later in the evening after being told that her husband "should stop doing that because it agitates public," said Surat Ikramov, a human rights advocate. Activists said the woman was held at a police station.

Police have refused to comment on the allegations.

Shosalimov said he began receiving death threats and police started following him after he announced plans to run for president earlier this month.

The Constitutional Court last week refused to consider an appeal by Shosalimov that challenged the constitutionality of the government's decision to let Karimov remain in office until the December vote. Karimov's latest term expired more than a week ago.

Karimov has ruled Uzbekistan since he became chief of its Communist Party in 1989, when the country was still part of the Soviet Union. He was elected president of this Central Asian nation in December 1991, the same month the Soviet Union collapsed.

His government has shown little tolerance for dissent, especially after a May 2005 revolt in the eastern city of Andijan that was put down by government troops.

Rights defenders and witnesses said at least 700 of the mostly unarmed protesters were shot to death by troops. Authorities insisted fewer than 200 died and blamed Islamic militants for instigating the violence.