In an April 5, 2012 statement, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security published details of six terror suspects who had spent time in a "neighboring country" - a reference to close ally Pakistan - and describing them as "core members" of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). It also urged foreign governments to arrest and hand over the six ETIM members to Chinese authorities.
East Turkistan, also known as Xinjiang, was relatively autonomous until the early 1950s when Mao's victorious rebel armies captured it and other Chinese border regions. Resistance by the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uyghurs to gain independence from China has lacked political support from neighboring nations due to their own "fractured tribal nature." ...
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