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 China, Pakistan's only major ally in the region, has long urged
Islamabad to weed out what it says are militants from its western
region of Xinjiang, who are holed up in a lawless tribal belt, home
to a lethal mix of militant groups, including the Taliban and al
Qaeda.
A mass stabbing at a train station in the Chinese city of Kunming
two weeks ago, in which at least 29 people were killed, has put a
new spotlight on the largely Muslim Uighur ethnic minority from
Xinjiang, where Beijing says armed groups seek to establish an
independent state called East Turkestan.
Beijing has called the Kunming bloodshed a "terrorist attack"
carried out by militants, and says separatists operate training
camps across the rugged border which abuts Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In a rare but brief 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 fulfill 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, speaking in the
Uighur language through an interpreter.
"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 spoke on a crackly line using a mobile phone with an Afghan
SIM card in a brief statement which gave Reuters no chance to ask
about the Kunming attack.
The separatists hide mainly in the troubled North Waziristan region,
where they are treated by their Pakistani Taliban hosts as guests of
honor, militant and Pakistani intelligence sources say.
The Turkestan Islamic Party, which China equates with the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), keeps a low profile in Pakistan.
Unlike the Taliban, it almost never posts videos promoting its
activities or ideology. Its exact size is unknown and some experts
dispute its ability to orchestrate attacks in China, or that is
exists at all as a cohesive group.
Getting hold of leaders such as Mansour is almost impossible and
interviews are usually very brief and conducted from undisclosed
locations through a Pashto-speaking translator.
Pakistani intelligence sources say they number about 400 fighters,
and are clustered around the remote Mir Ali area, sharing bases with
other foreign insurgents, particularly Uzbeks, who speak a similar
language.
In Afghanistan, two security reports sent to expatriates working
there this year warned of attacks on a Chinese hotel, Chinese
companies and other targets in Kabul. There have been no attacks so
far.
According to Afghan Taliban sources, there are about 250 Uighur
militants in Afghanistan's Nuristan and Kunar provinces.
"They live here with us but are always concerned about their people
and mission in China. They are nice people, good Muslims and the
best fighters," a senior Taliban commander said.
He added that Uighur militants were not fond of guns, and resorted
mostly to knives and daggers.
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. China
labeled it a suicide attack by militants from the region.
Mansour released a Uighur-language video weeks after the Tiananmen
incident, calling it a "jihadi operation" by its holy warriors.
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CRUCIAL ALLY
For Pakistan, China is a valued friend in a region it views as
potentially hostile. It is keen to demonstrate a commitment to
weeding out what Beijing calls separatists, but its security forces
are already stretched fighting Pakistani Taliban militants.
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's former interior minister, said that about
20 Uighur militants were captured and handed over to China on his
watch in 2008-2013.
"Pakistan and China are great friends. There are no secrets between
us. When I took over as interior minister, I took on this subject in
close association with my partners in China," he said. "The present
government is also aware of the whole thing."
Many Uighurs in the energy-rich Xinjiang region which borders
ex-Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, accuse Han
Chinese of stifling their culture and religion. More than 100 people
there have been killed in unrest in the past year, according to
Chinese state media reports.
But the Chinese government has provided little evidence that the
Kunming killings or any other incidents that Beijing has labeled
terrorist attacks have been linked to outside forces.
Some experts have suggested that the low-tech nature of the weapons
the assailants used in Kunming and the location of the attack point
to a lack of external backing and weakly organized revenge killings
as opposed to coordinated international terrorism.
The Kunming attack has put China on edge and prompted concerns over
rising discrimination against Uighurs across the country.
Exiled Uighur groups have repeatedly called for transparent
investigations into such incidents and say they should not be used
as excuses for further repressive policies on Uighur communities.
Hundreds of Uighurs migrated to the lawless areas of Pakistan about
five years ago after they were squeezed out of their homeland by a
Chinese crackdown, Pakistani security sources say. Their numbers are
believed to be much smaller now.
"The Chinese militants in the tribal areas are mostly clerics and
fighters. They have their families here and are mostly focused on
Afghanistan," said one Pakistani Taliban commander.
Saifullah Mahsud, head of the Pakistani think tank FATA Research
Center, which has extensive sources in Pakistan's tribal areas,
agreed their power and capacity to carry out major attacks are
exaggerated by China.
"It's survival, basically. They can't go back," he said. "This is
the only place where they are welcome."
But attempts by Taliban insurgents to carve out new hideouts in
northern areas of Pakistan near China's border have helped create a
new corridor for Uighurs leading into their homeland.
"In the last couple of years, Taliban militants have got nearer and
nearer to the Chinese border," said Mahsud. "There has been a lot of
movement there. Perhaps that gives them the logistical support that
they require to cross over into China."
(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmed in Peshawar, Jessica Donati in
Kabul and Michael Martina in Beijing; writing by Maria Golovnina in
Islamabad; editing by John Chalmers, Ben Blanchard and Nick Macfie)
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