He associated with the Turkic nationalist Young Kashgar Party and appointed himself as 'Timur Shah'.[1] He and other Uighurs like the Bughra brothers wanted to secede from China. In August 1933 his troops were attacked by the Chinese Muslim 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) under General Ma Zhancang. Timur was shot and beheaded and his head was put on a pike, to be displayed at the Idgah mosque in Kashgar.[2][3]