Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang continue to face persecution and genocide at the hands of the Chinese government. A series of reports by news agency Radio Free Asia (RFA) has shed more light on the excesses of the Chinese Communist Party. The news agency documented the plight of Uyghur citizens like Yusup Saqal, Abdureshid Obul and Alimjan Mehmut, all of whom have been jailed and prosecuted for strange ‘crimes’.
The reports outline that Saqal was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang for ‘taking criminals under his wing’. People from the Uyghur community familiar with the developments told Radio Free Asia that his clashes with Chinese businessmen, sudden adherence to Muslim traditions like barring oneself from liquor consumption and helping Uyghurs who were affected by Chinese detention earned the authorities ire.
The people mentioned above told the RFA that the police even questioned him on his sudden quitting of alcohol. Abdureshid Niyaz, a Uyghur exile based in Turkey, told the RFA that the embracing of a Islamic lifestyle led to his detention. Yusup drove the wife and children of a detained Uyghur to the detention facility for a prearranged meeting eight years ago and it was cited as a reason for his imprisonment four years later in 2018.
Befriending Bearded Men
Alimjan Mehmut, and his colleagues, Ezizjan and Ezisqari, who once taught at the Kashgar Sports School were also detained and imprisoned for following an Islamic lifestyle. Mehmut was arrested for “befriending bearded men,” a Chinese government official told the RFA. It meant that Mehmut was arrested for being in touch with Muslim Uyghurs deemed suspicious by authorities. It is worth mentioning that Mehmut was one of the torchbearers in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Saving His Wife
Abdureshid Obul from Lenger village in Keriye county was jailed for moving his pregnant wife from their hometown in Xinjiang to prevent the Chinese police officials from a forced-abortion.
The Chinese government accused Obul of an anti-government action, saying that the act of saving his wife from the forced-abortion was an example of religious extremism, and a disruption of the social order, a Chinese official told the RFA.
The Chinese official also shed light on the persecution of the minority in Xinjiang since 2017. The official said that heightened crackdown coincided with a sudden push in 2017 for enforcing the family planning policy in China.
It is, however, noteworthy that the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hosted Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and did not choose to raise the issue of Uyghurs in China and their continued persecution.
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