Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov passed away

Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov passed away on 2 September 2016 at Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He was 78.
Karimov had dominated Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous nation, for more than 25 years.
•    Islam Karimov was the first President of Uzbekistan, in office from 1990 to 2016.
•    He was born in Samarkand and was in and out of an orphanage from 1941 to 1945.
•    He became an official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He became the party's First Secretary in Uzbekistan in 1989.
•    On 24 March 1990, he became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.
•    His election to the Uzbek Communist Party resulted after his predecessor Rafiq Nishonov failed to quell inter-ethnic clashes and instability in the Fergana Region.
•    He declared Uzbekistan an independent nation on 31 August 1991.
•    He subsequently won its first presidential election on 29 December 1991.