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Chinese authorities focus on Uighurs

BEIJING: Kashgar, located in China’s far western Xinjiang province, where 16 policemen were killed and as many injured on Monday when assailants attacked them with grenades and knives, is largely populated by a people of Turkic ethnicity, known as Uighurs.

In the run up to the Olympics, the authorities have identified the Uighurs as a focus of strict nationwide security.

Nasiruddin Wusu, a Kasghar native and an Uighur migrant worker in Shanghai, said in an interview with The Hindu that many locals were asked in recent months to surrender their passports to their neighbourhood police stations and not to travel outside the province.

On Friday, Colonel Tian Yixiang, China’s military officer in-charge of Olympics security, said that “East Turkestan terrorist groups” were the biggest threat to the Games’ security.

A group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, is the culprit that Beijing blames for violent activity in Xinjiang. While not much information is available on this shadowy group, many of its members are thought to have been trained in Pakistan.

Security measures here are at an all-time high. More than 34,000 military personnel, 74 airplanes, 47 helicopters and 33 navy ships have been deployed to ensure a safe Games, according to Col. Tian. The government has also installed tens of thousands of surveillance cameras on lamp poles and in Internet cafes and bars.

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