Pakistan on Monday said it would extend “full cooperation” to China in countering the rebels of the East Turkmenistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) operating in China’s Xinjiang region. The reiterating of Pakistan’s support to China against ETIM came hours after Beijing blamed militants trained in Pakistan for an attack in the Xinjiang region.
“Pakistan will continue to extend its full cooperation and support to the government of the People’s Republic of China against the ETIM,” said the Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua in a statement.
Responding to a question on the attack at Kashgar city in Xinjiang region, Janjua said “All incidents of terrorism are deplorable and Pakistan is fully confident that the patriotic people of Xinjiang autonomous region of China and, in particular, Kashgar, as well as the Chinese government, will succeed in curbing the attacks.”
Earlier, China said Muslim extremists were behind Sunday’s attack in Xinjiang region that left 11 people dead.
According to media reports, Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang resent the presence of Han Chinese religious and political controls imposed by Beijing.
The attack on Sunday came a day after two small blasts hit Kashgar, a city dominated by Uighurs. A Chinese government statement said the leaders of the group behind yesterday’s attack had been trained in using explosives and weapons at a camp run by the ETIM in Pakistan.
However, Xinjiang expert Michael Dillon told AFP there was little evidence the group had any links to Pakistan.
“What we’re seeing now is a repeat of China’s complete unwillingness to see that unrest inside its borders might stem from poor conditions,” said Dillon, an academic and author of the book “Xinjiang, China’s Muslim Far Northwest”.
