Published 11:22 IST, September 26th 2020
Pakistanis also hit by China's Uighur atrocities; Imran govt's silence criminal & cowardly
Chinese atrocities on Uighur Muslims also impacted hundreds of Pakistani lives and Pakistan government's silence has made the lives of Pakistanis even worse
China has been in the news for quite some time now over the origin of COVID-19 from its soil, the ground or sea border disputes with neighbouring countries and the gross human rights violations by imposing the draconian national security law in Hong Kong, threatening the autonomy of the city and the human rights abuse of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province in a bid to change the demographics of the region.
However, the Chinese regime's atrocities on Uighur Muslims have also impacted hundreds of Pakistani lives and the Pakistani government's silence in the issue has made the lives of the natives in Pakistan even worse.
A report from Los Angeles Times stated that Pakistanis have suffered from China's suppression of Muslims in the Xinjiang territory as a native from Pakistan named Sakandar Hayat lost his wife as she was detained in Kashgar in 2017, China's Xinjiang region and sent to prison while his son was arrested at the Pakistan China border right in front of him in 2017. Since then Hayat has been struggling to find his family and reunite with them.
Hayat along with his teenage son Arafat left from Northwest China, crossed the border to settle in Hayat's native Pakistan in 2017. It was only three weeks since they had been in Pakistan when they received a phone call from Xinjiang that Hayat's wife has been detained by Chinese authorities. Soon after the call, the duo rushed to Pakistan-China border and was stopped by Chinese Police at the border. His son Arafat, then 19 was taken for questioning and the police told Hayat that he will get his son back in a week.
Hayat begged the police to question his son in front of him but not to separate his son from him but the Chinese showed no mercy and since then he has been searching for his son and wife. Hayat was also denied a visa to China for two years while their two daughters aged 7 and 12 were sent to an orphanage in Kashgar without their consent. He pleaded the Chinese and Pakistani authorities for information about his family with help and response until 2019 after which he received information from Chinese that his son has been sent for education. Education for Uighur Muslims in China is a euphemism for the detention in camps.
Hayat is just one of the hundreds of Pakistanis whose lives have affected due to Uighur detention and torture. The Chinese government has caused mass detention and torture of millions of Uighurs under the garb of vocational training. Those people in internment camps are subjected to forced political indoctrination, physical beatings and denial of food and medicine. They are also prohibited from practising their religion or even speaking their language. China denies such accounts of torture and human rights abuse but also doesn't agree for independent inspections into the regions.
(With ANI inputs. Representative image from AP)
Updated 11:22 IST, September 26th 2020