Following up on Friday's "Pakistan begs China for power debt forgiveness".
From Asia Times, June 4:
Beijing ups pressure on Islamabad to find and deport some 2,000 Uighur families that have recently fled persecution in Xinjiang
PESHAWAR – Muslim Uighur families are fleeing China’s Xinjiang western province to avoid official persecution and taking refuge in neighboring Pakistan, a gathering exodus that is putting bilateral relations under new strain.
Pakistani authorities say they are under growing pressure from Beijing to round up and repatriate the Uighurs due to China’s concerns they may join the East Turkestan Independent Movement (ETIM), which seeks to create an independent state in Xinjiang, and other Muslim militant groups who have targeted Beijing’s nationals and interests in Pakistan.
Pakistan Interior Ministry sources told Asia Times that over 2,000 Uighur families have recently illegally entered Pakistan, most due to Chinese state repression. China has put over one million Uighurs in so-called “vocational” camps Western critics have said are thinly veiled internment camps.
China’s persecution of the Uighurs has recently come under hot fire from the US and EU, putting the minority group in the middle of a larger geopolitical contest for supremacy.
That’s putting Pakistan in a tight space. Before the recent influx, Interior Ministry sources say around 2,000 Uighur families have been living in Pakistan since 1950, mostly running businesses in central Punjab and northern parts of the country.
Asia Times repeatedly tried to reach Pakistan Interior Minister Shaikh Rasheed on the phone for comment on the issue, but his private secretary said that the official was busy in a meeting and never returned follow-up calls.
A senior immigration official who requested anonymity told Asia Times that higher authorities have recently been deployed by security agencies and police to pursue the new Uighur refugees in response to Beijing’s “immense pressure” to deport them.
“The authorities have begun collecting biometric data on all Uighurs living in Pakistan to know exactly how many Uighurs have migrated from China,” he said....
....MUCH MORE
In addition to Pakistan vis-à-vis the Uyghurs, that Friday post also mentioned why other coreligionists were reluctant to confront China:
As for the Saudis, they and the Gulf States are acutely aware of losing Chinese hydrocarbon market share to Iran and Russia.
And now we read via World Oil, June 3:
Iran preps to aggressively reclaim key Asian oil markets when sanctions lift
Not planning to supply China, yet. But it is a huge stick for Beijing to brandish.
