China freezes assets of 6 Uyghur militants; lashes at Pak

 
Tacitly pointing finger at its close ally Pakistan, China on Friday froze assets of six absconding terrorists of a separatist outfit in Xinjiang, the native province of Muslim Uyghurs, and called on foreign countries to arrest and hand them over to it.

Chinese police today published a list of six militants, who were stated to be native Uyghurs. Without directly naming Pakistan, a statement issued by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security said they had spent some time in "a certain south Asian country", where they reported to have undergone training in terror attacks, suicide bombings and knife attacks.
All six are "core members" of the banned East Turkistan Islamic Movement, (ETIM), it said.
"The ministry hoped that foreign governments and their law enforcing departments would help to arrest the six and hand them over to Chinese authorities," an official of Ministry was quoted as saying by state-run news agency.
"The group is the most direct and real threat China faces for its security", he said.
Asked at a media briefing here today whether the Public Security statement referred to Pakistan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei said the question should be referred to relevant Ministry.
But at the same time he said ETIM is a US Security Council listed terrorist organisation and "it is universally recgonised in the international community as an organisation has engaged in lot of activities of crime and violence".
ETIM is not only at serious threat to China but also endangered peace security of "relevant countries and the region", he said.
"Fighting ETIM is an important part of the international campaign against terrorism. The international community should unite as one to jointly fight terrorism," he said.(ST-06/04)