2 Uygurs shot dead trying to enter Vietnam
Print Edition
TWO men from northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region were shot dead by police as they tried to cross into Vietnam from south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Sunday night.
Police forced a vehicle carrying ethnic Uygurs to stop near a highway tollbooth in Pingxiang, a city on the border, at around 8pm, China News Service reported yesterday.
However, the group put up a fight and two were shot dead at the scene while a third man escaped to a nearby residential complex, local authorities said. He has since been arrested.
The Ministry of Public Security has accused a separatist group of orchestrating hundreds of cases of human smuggling.
The ministry said that since May, a task force on human smuggling across the country’s southwestern borders had uncovered 262 cases. So far, police have caught 1,024 suspects, including 852 who tried to leave China illegally, Xinhua news agency reported.
Many of the suspects from Xinjiang were either threatened or incited by overseas extremist groups to join in “jihad,” or holy war, in Muslim countries.
The smuggling is “mainly organized abroad and controlled by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in an effort to spread religious extremism, and bewitch and incite people to flee abroad to take part in jihadist activities,” the ministry said.
Messages on mobile phones seized during the campaign show some from overseas organizers saying: “You can decide your life and death. Allah will bless you,” and encouraging suspects to fight police officers.
Police said that most suspects appeared to have been “brainwashed” with ideas of violence and terrorism. They believe they will enter heaven if they die while waging holy war.
On April 18 last year, a group of 16 people from Xinjiang were intercepted by Vietnamese police shortly after they entered the country from Guangxi. Fearing they would be returned to China, they decided to fight back, Xinhua reported.
At a police station, one of them rushed at an armed officer and shouted to the others to fight. Another grabbed a submachine gun and killed two officers.
Six of the men were shot dead in the exchange of fire and two others committed suicide by jumping from the building. Before jumping, one shouted: “Allah is supreme! Let’s expel the heathen,” according to China Central Television.
The other suspects are now in custody in China. Among them was a woman whose husband was one of those shot dead.
Police said one man on the Chinese side of the border had been paid 2,000 yuan per person to help them cross into Vietnam last year. He had helped nearly 300 before he was caught.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
