China has underlined the need for Islamabad to take action against Islamist militants who may be be plotting attacks inside the Communist nation from Pakistan's restive tribal areas, a news report has said. In two meetings over recent months, senior Chinese officials have warned the Pakistani government about the threat.
Chinese officials have told President Asif Ali Zardari's government that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (Etim), a separatist group originally from Xinjiang province, was plotting attacks into the communist nation from inside Pakistan's tribal areas, which has become a haven for Islamist terrorists, the Independent newspaper reported.
Xinjiang, a vast area that borders Central Asia, has about 8.3 million Uighurs, and many of them say they have for decades suffered under Chinese political and religious persecution.
Chinese officials revealed details of the meetings to prominent Pakistani politician Mushahid Hussain.
"They told me that the Etim has its military headquarters in [the tribal areas] and is planning to attack China on the 60th anniversary celebration of the communist revolution in October," Hussain was quoted as saying by the British daily.
Hussain, a top leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid), said that Meng Jianzhu, China's Minister for Public Security, flew from Beijing to Shanghai to discuss the threat with the Pakistani President during his visit to China in late February.
"The minister met with him for 90 minutes to discuss this issue," said Hussain, a key adviser of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
The PML-Q leader revealed that Beijing also dispatched a special envoy to Pakistan in March to discuss the threat posed by the Etim. The Etim and Chinese militants have long maintained a low-profile presence in Pakistan's tribal areas. Both Washington and Beijing have listed Etim as a terrorist group and suspect it of links with al-Qaeda.
The Pakistani army killed Hasan Mahsoum, the group's leader and founder, in Pakistan in 2003. China executed two Uighurs in the restive northwestern Xinjiang region for a "terrorist" attack on border police that took place before last year's Olympic Games, the official Xinhua news agency reported today.
The August 4 attack was the worst in a wave of unrest in remote Xinjiang ahead of, and during, the Olympics that left dozens of people dead and that China blamed on separatist militants from the northwest region.
