Apr 10, 2018

East Turkestan: Reports of Chinese Arresting Uyghur Women in Gilgit-Baltistan


A growing trend of extraterritorial arrests conducted by China, usually based on faulty evidence, is hitting Gilgit-Baltistan. The Pakistan-occupied region is home to large China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructural work being mainly undertaken by the Chinese government, and as a result the Chinese Communist Party has seen itself fit to overtake functions of justice and rule of law in the territory.  

 

The article below was published by the Deccan Chronicle:

 

Anger and distress against Chinese is brewing among families in Gilgit-Baltistan following news being received of Uighur women in Xinjiang province being arrested. Xinxiang's proximity to Gilgit-Baltistan has seen both of these regions sharing long historical, cultural and family ties. Many Uighur are married to Gilgit-Baltistan locals. The arrests of Uighur women could be a result of China's suspicion of their alleged association with Islamist extremists. An all-party conference was held in Gilgit recently on Chinese transgressions and a demand was made for the immediate release from jail of over fifty Uighur women who had been implicated on false charges of terrorism. They also demanded imposition of a trade ban against China for a year. In order to avoid compromising Chinese sovereignty, Beijing had laid down strict laws for men from Pakistan marrying women living in Chinese territory. However, in a suppressive and hypocritical move, Beijing clamped down on married women in spite of them following the law.

Gilgit-Baltistan lawmakers had earlier passed a unanimous resolution calling on the Pakistan government to urge China to free the arrested women and facilitate their reunion with their families. China has used systematic ways to eradicate the ethnic Uyghur Muslims from Xinxiang and has now ramped up conspiracies to invade the already illegally occupied territory of Pakistan. A distressing reality of Chinese oppression has hit Islamabad that has repeatedly declared Gilgit- Baltistan as the gateway of China-Pak friendship. The writing on the wall is indicative of a Chinese invasion of Pakistani territories in the name of China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

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