The Chinese government is silencing voices of dissent in the restive far western region of Xinjiang by jailing ethnic Uighurs who speak out two years after deadly riots in the regional capital, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
In July 2009, regional capital Urumqi was rocked by ethnic violence between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people.
Many of the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs, who call Xinjiang home, chafe at Beijing’s rule. Since then, China has executed nine people it blamed for instigating the riots, detained and prosecuted hundreds of others and ramped up spending on security, according to state media and overseas rights groups.
Pakistan with its close economic and diplomatic relationship should inform China not allow the Uighurs go the way of Tibetans. Pakistan has the clout to do so.
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