Alim also initiated an extensive campaign of military reforms, which included hiring mercenary Tajik forces.
[3] Alim's strict control of the Khanate and numerous unpopular military campaigns, including an unexplained massacre of a Kazakh village in winter, fragmented his army and led to his death at the hands of his brother Muhammad Umar Khan.
With only twenty remaining loyal soldiers, Alim was advised to travel to Khodjend to meet reinforcements of 4,000 troops but did not.
When he insisted on heading to the city of Kokand, 17 of the 20 remaining soldiers abandoned him; he was then fatally shot by a member of the Umar Khan faction when he got stuck in the sand with his horse.
Alim's son was treated with hostility as governor of Tashkent, and was captured by the Umar's forces shortly after his father's death.