PM Modi pays floral tributes to Uzbekistan's first President Islam Karimov

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday paid floral tributes to the first President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, who died in September 2016.

Modi, who arrived in Samarkand on Thursday night to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, visited the grave of Karimov here.

During his visit to Uzbekistan in 2015, Prime Minister Modi had presented Karimov a specially commissioned reproduction of Khamsa-i-Khusrau by the great 13th century sufi poet Amir Khusrau who was born in Uttar Pradesh and whose father hailed from Uzbekistan.

Written in Persian, and profusely decorated and illuminated with various colours including gold and ultramarine, the work is a part of the manuscripts collection of the National Museum, Delhi.