China has stepped up security in Xinjiang after a vehicle ploughed into tourists on the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders. PHOTO: AFP
DERA ISMAIL KHAN/ ISLAMABAD: Entrenched in secret mountain bases on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, Uighur fighters are gearing up for retribution against China to avenge the deaths of comrades in Beijing’s crackdown on a separatist movement, their leader told Reuters.
In a rare interview, Abdullah Mansour, leader of the rebel Turkestan Islamic Party, said it was his holy duty to fight the Chinese. “The fight against China is our Islamic responsibility and we have to fulfil it,” he said from an undisclosed location.
“China is not only our enemy, but it is the enemy of all Muslims ... We have plans for many attacks in China,” he said. “We have a message to China that East Turkestan people and other Muslims have woken up. They cannot suppress us and Islam any more. Muslims will take revenge.”
Mansour gave Reuters no chance to ask about the attack in Kunming two weeks ago.
At least 29 people were killed in a mass stabbing at a Kunming train station, putting new spotlight on the largely Muslim Uighur ethnic minority from Xinjiang.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2014.
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