A young "charismatic" Uzbek

Uzbeks

The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...

 leader with a substantial following, Jumma Kasimov (also known as Jummah Khan Namangani and Jumaboi Ahmadzhanovich Khojayev) founded the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley...

 and received substantial Taliban patronage, allowed to operate freely in Northern Afghanistan.

Conscripted into the Soviet Army in 1987, as a member of an elite paratrooper force fought in the war in Afghanistan

Soviet war in Afghanistan

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...

.

Believed to have been killed in Mazari Sharif, he was eulogised together with Mohammed Atef

Mohammed Atef

Mohammed Atef was the alleged military chief of al-Qaida, although his role in the organization was not well known by intelligence agencies for years...

 in a speech by Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

in November 2001. However the remains of his body were never found, and his death never proven.