Jumaboi Ahmadjonovich Khodjiyev, better known by the nom de guerre Juma Namangani, was an Uzbek Islamist militant with a substantial following who co-founded and led the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan with Tohir Yo'ldosh.
15 Facts About Juma Namangani
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Juma Namangani fled to southern Tajikistan in 1992, following a crackdown on Adolat by the government of Islam Karimov, with a group that included roughly thirty Uzbek fighters and a few Arab intermediaries between Adolat and Saudi Arabian financiers.
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Juma Namangani opposed the peace agreement signed between the UTO and the government of Emomali Rahmon in June 1997, but eventually demobilized most of his fighters while sustaining a core group of supporters in his Tavildara Valley stronghold.
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Juma Namangani bought and operated a farm in the village of Hoit and owned lorries that transported goods to the Tajik capital, Dushanbe; he is alleged to have trafficked heroin from Afghanistan through Tajikistan to European markets.
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Juma Namangani is essentially a guerrilla leader, not an Islamic scholar.
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The IRP persuaded their former ally Juma Namangani to leave in late 1999, and in November approximately three hundred IMU fighters, and their families, were escorted by Russian troops to the border with Afghanistan, where they were welcomed by the Taliban and lodged in Mazar-i-Sharif.
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Juma Namangani reportedly raised more than US$20 million from bin Laden in early 2000, and another US$15 million from foreign financiers, with which he equipped and trained his forces.
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In July 2000, Juma Namangani returned to the Tavildara Valley with several hundred fighters, and from there covertly deployed his fighters into Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
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In Kyrgyzstan, Juma Namangani's fighters kidnapped ten mountain climbers, including four Americans, who were freed following clashes with the military.
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Juma Namangani withdrew to the IMU's base in Mazar-i-Sharif in October 2000.
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The attacks suggested that Juma Namangani wielded "a new, independent command structure that could operate without his presence".
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Juma Namangani was reportedly killed in an airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.
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General Abdul Rashid Dustum of the Northern Alliance claimed Juma Namangani died during fighting for the city of Kunduz.
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Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir reported that Juma Namangani died on 6 November 2001 in Mazar-i-Sharif and was eulogised, together with Mohammed Atef, in a speech by Osama bin Laden on 8 November 2001.
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However, a report by the National Security Council of Kyrgyzstan in July 2002 stated that Juma Namangani "had recovered from wounds sustained the previous winter and was gathering forces in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan".