11 separatists killed in Kyrgyzstan border clash
Print Edition
Eleven people believed to be members of a Uygur militant group were killed in Kyrgyzstan after illegally crossing into the former Soviet republic from China, Kyrgyz border guards said yesterday.
“According to their appearance, (those killed) were Uygurs, while things found on them showed that they belonged to an organization of Uygur separatists,” said Raimberdi Duishenbiyev, acting head of Kyrgyz border guards.
After crossing the border in a mountainous area of northeast Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, the militants ran into a local hunter who killed two of them before being killed himself, he added. The attackers seized the hunter’s gun but were later blocked by border guards from a nearby frontier post.
A unit of special task force flown to the area by helicopter killed the remaining nine men who refused to surrender.
The hunter’s gun appeared to be the only firearm held by the group, which slightly wounded a border guard and shouted back in Uygur.
“Allah is greatest!” they chanted before dying, Duishenbiyev said. The guards found a Koran, black masks, knives and topographic maps printed in China at the scene.
Kyrgyz border guards informed their Chinese counterparts about the incident but the Chinese said they had detected no cases of illegal crossing of the border, Duishenbiyev said.
“One of our versions is that this was an attempt to seize weapons from local herders and hunters and commit acts of terror here and then return to their native country,” said Gulmira Borubayeva, spokeswoman for the border guards.
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