Word: uzbek
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Whatever the cause, mobs of mostly young Uzbek men went on a rampage against the Meskhetians, hunting them down in their homes and beating them with iron bars and stones. Moscow rushed 9,000 Interior Ministry troops to the scene in an attempt to quell the violence. But fighting erupted in the city of Kokand, 40 miles west of Fergana, where a mob numbering 5,000, some with automatic weapons, attacked government buildings, blocked railroad tracks and set fires...
...previous head, reputed to be more adept at drinking (forbidden by Islam) and politics than study of the Koran, was ousted after an unprecedented protest march in Tashkent. His successor is Mukhammadsadyk Mamayusupov, 36, a modest and dignified scholar. At the same time as Mamayusupov's elevation, the Uzbek Republic gave his board a precious Koran dictated by Caliph Osman, one of Muhammad's earliest followers. Thousands cheered and wept as the invaluable holy book was moved from a museum to the new headquarters mosque, which has just been returned to the board...
...Burhanuddin Rabbani, 48, heads the Jamiat-i-Islami (Islamic League), militarily the strongest Afghan party. A former theology professor at Kabul University, Rabbani has fought against Afghan governments since 1970. Rabbani's main weakness: his political strength lies with the Tajik and Uzbek ethnic groups in a country that has traditionally been ruled by Pashtuns...
Along the streets of the sleepy Soviet border town of Termez, anxious wives, restless children, curious journalists and proud military officers began to assemble shortly after dawn. As local Communist Party officials arranged a banquet of fruits and nuts on a long white-clothed table, a small troupe of Uzbek dancers rehearsed their steps. Seven Young Pioneers, their trademark red scarves flapping in the breeze, clutched flowers. Just after 11:30, a military band burst into lively music to greet the first of 60 armored personnel carriers rumbling into sight across the steel "Friendship Bridge" at the border. When...
...Private Mohammad Beg, a Soviet soldier stationed in an isolated outpost north of Kabul, the odyssey to confinement and conversion began with a dispute with one of his superiors in 1987. After beating the officer unconscious, the 21-year-old Uzbek from Tashkent deserted, and before long, Afghan villagers handed him over to the mujahedin...