New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is fully aware of the “genocide” being carried out by China against Uyghur Muslims but he is “trying to run away from the reality”, according to top Uyghur leader and Prime Minister of East Turkistan Government-in-Exile Salih Hudayar.
Uyghurs are the ethnic natives of Xinjiang region, which they call as East Turkistan under China’s illegal occupation since 1949.
Slamming Pakistan, Hudayar says it keeps raising the issue of Kashmir and other places but is “satisfied with the genocide of 30 million Turkic Muslims in East Turkestan” by China.
He appeals to India to raise its voice for Uyghur Muslims, saying it will help New Delhi avert the continuous threat from China like the one posed on the Ladakh border at present.
He noted that the India government has not yet made any official statement on the issue of Uyghurs, except for signing up with US and other countries against China.
“Right now, India has got a lot of issues with China. East Turkistan issue is most sensitive for China. But now they (India) need to publicly come out and speak out against the Chinese atrocities,” he said.
Asked whether it is the right time for India to speak up for Uyghurs since China has undertaken aggression on the Ladakh border, Hudayar agreed, saying the “threat of China is not going to disappear so long as China occupies East Turkistan and Tibet. So to remove the strategic threat posed by China, India should support East Turkistan and Tibet.”
Contending that India does not share any border with China but with East Turkistan and Tibet, he said, “For its own strategic interests, India needs to support East Turkistan cause. It is in India’s own strategic interest in short term and long term also.”
The PM of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile said he would love to reach out to the Indian government and raise this issue. “East Turkistan and India have a long history and cultural exchange for thousands of years,” he said.
“The Indian Parliament should pass a resolution on this issue, like the Canadian Parliamentary Committee which recognised the developments in East Turkistan as genocide,” he suggested.
Referring to Pakistan, Hudayar said, it is “satisfied with the genocide of 30 million Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan”.
He said the Islamic world has been “corrupted by Chinese money and Chinese economic and political influence” and “there is hypocrisy, especially, when we see Pakistan raising issue of Kashmir and other places but ignores East Turkistan issue.”
The Uyghur leader pointed out that Pakistan’s National Security Advisor recently said that “they are 100 percent satisfied with what China is doing in East Turkistan.”
When pointed out that Pakistan PM Imran Khan has claimed he does not know what is happening to Uyghurs, Hudayar said, “He is fully aware of what’s happening. His NSA said he is fully aware of what is happening. He (Khan) is trying to run away from the reality. He knows China is engaging in genocide. “
He added that there are also Pakistani citizens who have families or relatives in East Turkistan locked up in concentration camps by the Chinese authorities.
“Pakistan has gone down the wrong path by thinking it can use China’s investments. They (Pakistani leaders) are playing with Pakistan’s future. This is how China occupied East Turkistan 71 years ago by corrupting leaders and now we are facing genocide,” the Uyghur leader said.
Asked whether he thinks China would use same tactics against Pakistan as applied against East Turkistan to occupy it, he said, “Absolutely, China will use same tactics against any of these countries where China is investing now. Right now they might be all nice but at the end of day they are engaging in colonisation. We are already seeing that happening in Africa. Many countries are unable to pay back (Chinese) loans.”
Talking about the situation in Xinjiang, he said over a million Uyghurs are locked up in concentration camps and prisons where many are dying, men are being forcibly sterilized and there is constant surveillance and harassment outside the concentration camps.
He said the international community is slowly recognising that atrocities against Uyghurs are equal to genocide but wants UN-led investigation to expose the exact situation to the world.
