China urges Pakistan to expel Uighur Islamic militants

[Major Shaitan Singh]

China has asked Pakistan to do more to end the presence of ethnic Uighur Islamic militants in its tribal areas, Pakistani officials say.

They say that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi raised the issue with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari during his recent visit to Islamabad.

The militants are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (Etim).

They have run sanctuaries and training facilities in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region since the mid-1990s.

The militants say they are fighting to liberate China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang province, on the border with Pakistan, from Chinese occupation.

China says that such groups - with links to al-Qaeda - are responsible for unrest in Xinjiang, home to its Muslim Uighur minority.

Chinese authorities have previously voiced concerns over the presence of the Etim militants in Pakistani tribal areas, who they say are being trained there and then cross into Xinjiang to carry out militant attacks.

But they have desisted from discussing the issue publicly to save embarrassment to Pakistan.

In April, the Chinese government posted profiles of six Uighur suspects on its website, saying they were operating in South Asia, without naming Pakistan.

A senior Pakistani interior ministry official told the BBC that Mr Jiechi broached the subject in his meeting with President Zardari on 29 May.

He said the foreign minister stressed the growing concerns of the Chinese authorities about the presence of Etim militants on Pakistani territory, and discussed ways in which China could help Pakistan to evict them.

The official said Pakistani intelligence services had been regularly sharing information about the Etim with their Chinese counterparts.

Last year, Pakistan handed over to China a handful of Uighur militants who were captured by the security forces in the tribal areas, he said.

Etim militants are among hundreds of Islamist fighters from all over the Central Asian region who are said to be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

At least two top-ranking Etim leaders have been killed in the region over the last decade - one in a Pakistani military raid in 2003 and the other in a drone strike in 2010.

Muslim Uighurs make up about 45% of the population of Xinjiang. Some say waves of Han Chinese immigration and heavy-handed government policies have marginalised their culture and traditions

 

[ice_man]

any source link to your news shaitan?

 

[Shardul.....the lion]

any source link to your news shaitan?

BBC News - China urges Pakistan to expel Uighur Islamic militants

 

[RuheTag]

Actually there is some basis in that news. BBC also reported this news.

BBC News - China urges Pakistan to expel Uighur Islamic militants

This is the biggest problem and a fact Pakistanis do not like to admit and do not like to talk about. There are militants from around the world hiding in Pakistan and plan attacks to targets inside and outside Pakistan. Pakistan must get rid of them if it wants a respectable place in international community. Hard fact but true!

The irony is no politician (except General Musharraf, the one with such courage) in Pakistan talks about it. Even the new emerging PTI is scared of this issue that IK dont even talk about it rather they like to confuse people about 'war on terror' in general, 'drone attacks' etc when drawn attention towards it. The fact is drone attacks do target these kind of militants in tribal areas.

 

[Icewolf]

And China said we will do for our best friend, INDIANS can jump in a well

 

[Skull and Bones]

As if Pakistan has control over their tribal areas

 

[batmannow]

Put a official chinse of pakistani link here , or this theared will be, SHOT DOWN!
This a media stunt, by allied media war group, just ask the names, of officials , who were telling, them this whole , dam news!
Also this is not the, section for this thread!

 

[RuheTag]

Pakistan do not have direct administrative control over all of the tribal areas like rest of the country but they do can influence matters via political agents and can launch military operations.

The problem is there is a lack of political support for such an operation in public and to some extent resources as well.

However, to be fair, the blame partly also lies with NATO and US forces inside Afghanistan. They have not manned the border from Afghan side and they do not control the flow of militants. So each time Pakistani Army launches and flushes militants from one area, like they did from Mohamand Agency few times, South Waziristan,, they militants flee into Afghanistan and after a while start coming back. If they do not find refuse in Afghanistan, surely situation will be different.

In this situation, for Pakistani army it is difficult to launch an all out operation in entire tribal region when they do need troops on eastern border as well. The only way this problem can be solved is when NATO and Pakistan have enough mutal trust and can agree on post-withdrawel strategy and take into confidence each on the negotiations with the Taliban. Also, the NATO secures the Afghan border from Afghan side so that there is no infliteration from Afghan side. Sadly, until that happens (which seems unlikely atleast in the near future), this will continue to happen.