New | Pakistan will help China in fight against Xinjiang militants: Sharif
Islamabad pledges assistance in Beijing's anti-terror fight against militants said to be active in the restive western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region
Pakistan will help China with its fight against extremists Beijing says are active in the unruly Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the country’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday during a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
China blames the East Turkestan Islamic Movement for carrying out attacks in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uygur people, though many foreign experts doubt the group’s existence in a cohesive group.
China, Pakistan’s only major ally in the region, has long urged Islamabad to weed out what it says are militants from Xinjiang, who are holed up in a lawless tribal belt, home to a lethal mix of militant groups, including the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Hundreds have died in unrest in Xinjiang in the last two years or so. Exiles and activists say Beijing’s controls on the religion and culture of the Uygur people is more a cause of the violence than well-organised militant groups.
Sharif told Xi that his country would “continue to resolutely fight the East Turkestan Islamic Movement terrorist forces”, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement following the meeting on the sidelines of the Apec conference in Beijing.
