China’s Communist Party has blamed terrorists from “outside the country” for the rise in violence in the restive Xinjiang province, which borders Pakistan and Central Asia and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, during his first foreign trip to the country, will face questions from Beijing in this regard, Indian media reported on Monday.
Last week’s clashes in the province, scene of a decades-old separatist movement involving Uighur Muslims, left 35 dead and 21 injured.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted Yu Zhengsheng, member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) central committee, as saying that “separatists in and outside the country have been escalating their efforts”, to cause disturbances.
India’s TNN news agency reported that Chinese leaders are expected to discuss the free movement of Taliban-backed terrorists on the China-Pakistan border during the visit of Nawaz to Beijing, from July 4.
Xinjiang’s local leaders have earlier blamed Pakistan as the source of weapons and training for terrorists operating in the region. But Yu refrained from naming any country. However, he admitted that some “deep-seated problems challenging Xinjiang’s social stability have not been completely solved”.
