China and Pakistan to hold anti-terror drills
BEIJING (July 30 2004): China and Pakistan will hold anti-terrorism exercises next month in the region bordering Afghanistan, state media said on Thursday.
The joint drills by China's People's Liberation Army and the Armed Forces of Pakistan were intended to "improve the capacity of jointly combating terrorism" the Xinhua news agency said, citing sources.
They were also designed to "contain and crackdown on the forces of separatism, extremism and terrorism."
The exercise will be held in the mountainous terrain of Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in the Xinjiang region, bordering Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Xinjiang is home to China's largely Muslim Uighur community, which is fighting for an independent state.
China says they are terrorists, and, according to rights groups, has used the global war on terror to justify their repression.
Many Uighurs have fled to neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan but China routinely pressures its neighbours for their return, Amnesty International said in a recent report.
Last year China published its first ever list of 11 ethnic Uighur Muslim separatists from Xinjiang and claimed some had links to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and had established bases in Afghanistan.
In October Pakistani troops shot one of them dead in a raid on a suspected al Qaeda hideout in mud-walled tribal homes in its South Waziristan tribal district.
Xinhua said the drills, in the second half of August, would help "maintain security and stability in the region".
China and Pakistan are traditional close allies. Islamabad relies heavily on Beijing for its defence equipment.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004
