Beijing: Pakistan assured its all- weather ally China that its military operations have eliminated from its territory “almost all” Uighur separatists, who have sneaked into the country from China’s restive Muslim- majority Xinjiang.
A military operation against “extremist and terrorism” had been “successful in eradicating the terrorism from our country”, President Mamnoon Hussain today told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People here. “It has also been very helpful in eliminating the ETIM (East Turkistan Islamic Movement)element from our country and I think almost all the ETIM people in our country have been eliminated,” said Hussain, here for commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
“Maybe, if they are there, there should be very few,” he said about the separatist group that China blames for attacks in Xinjiang, the far western region which has seen a wave of unrest and is home to China’s 10 million Turkic-speaking, mostly ethnic Muslim minority, Uighurs. China has in the past expressed concern to Pakistan that ETIM
members have sneaked into the Pakistani territory to join training camps from Xinjiang which borders the PoK.
