Terrorist threat in China: Can Pakistan help?

Daily Times, Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Hong Kong, Midland China threatened with terrorist attacks: China seeks Pakistan’s help in investigation
By Maqbool Ahmed

KARACHI: The Chinese government has requested the government of Pakistan to investigate and share information on a recent threat of terrorist attacks on tourist spots in Chinese-administrated Hong Kong and Midland China, well placed sources in the ministry of foreign affairs in Islamabad apprised Daily Times on Monday.

In an official request through its embassy in Islamabad, the Chinese government said that it had information that an Islamist terrorism network in China was planning coordinated attacks on hotels and other tourist spots in Hong Kong and Midland China with the help and backing of some US financiers.

The request, sources said, detailed the name of a person who was allegedly planning and coordinating the attacks.

The request was received on October 31 by the Chinese Consulate in Karachi in the form of a fax message naming a man suspected of planning the attacks in a “few days”. The fax message did not, however, mention how the attack could take place but stated that there was a fear that it might be in the form of bombings at hotels and tourists resorts.

While the Chinese government had requested an exchange of investigative information, ministry sources said it did not say whether the suspect was a Pakistani or could be present in Pakistan. “But, our Chinese friends have requested strict vigilance at our international airports and entry and exit points,” sources added.

Quoting the request, ministry sources said that the Chinese government had indicated that it had put on high alert its international airports, seaport and land entry and exit points after the fax message was received on October 31.

In the backdrop of this communication, just a day before the Chinese government’s fax was received in Islamabad, on September 30, a group named the World Uighur Congress issued a strong anti-China statement that was also posted on the website ‘Islam Online’.

The statement came on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Communist Party’s rule over Xinjiang, which was previously an independent nation known as East Turkestan. This is a remote region that Muslim Uighur militants, dubbed terrorists or separatists by Beijing, have been struggling for decades to make independent. Xinjiang was formally established on October 1, 1995.

The World Uighur Congress statement said that: “China’s crushing campaign of religious oppression and cultural assimilation against its Muslim Uighur minority, in the name of terror-combat and anti-separatism, risks turn[ing] the region into a ‘time bomb’”.

The Uighurs are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million whose traditional homeland lies in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in north-west China. Xinjiang has been autonomous since 1955 and is viewed by Beijing as an invaluable asset because of its crucial strategic location near Central Asia and its large oil and gas reserves.