Author: Shishir Gupta
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: February 21, 2001
India and China now seem to have
a common enemy: Islamic fundamentalism. In the third week of January, the
Indian armed forces gunned down four mercenaries in the Rajouri sector
of Jammu and Kashmir. The odd thing was the militants had mongoloid features.
And before succumbing to their injuries,
two of them made a startling revelation: they were Chinese nationals from
Uighur- Muslim dominated Xinjiang province.
The case of the Chinese jehadis
has alarmed Beijing. Information obtained from the mercenaries was passed
on to China's assistant foreign minister Wang Yi, who visited India for
the second round of the Sino-Indian security dialogue earlier this month.
Wang had discussions with foreign
secretary Lalit Mansingh and additional secretary, ministry of External
affairs, T.C.A. Rangachari. The Indian side tried to impress upon the Chinese
the need to combat Islamic terrorism jointly.
From all accounts, the Chinese have
reason to worry. Xinjiang is one of China's worst off provinces. It shares
borders with Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, and more importantly
with Taliban-dominated Afghanistan. For decades now,
the province's seven million Uighurs have been exposed to the radical neo-Wahabi
brand of Islam actively propagated in Afghanistan.
In their "dying declarations" two
of the militants admitted to being trained by pan-Islamic jehadis in Pakistan's
Baluchistan province. They said they had infiltrated into India from Pakistan
Occupied Kashmir along with a group of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba militants.
They were there to observe Lashkar's ongoing anti- India operations, and
then head for Chechnya.
The heavily indoctrinated Uighurs
want to wage war against Communist China as they perceive the regime to
be against the spread of Islam.
The Uighurs, along with Tibetan
separatist groups are niggling problems for the Chinese establishment.
Uighur extremists have often attacked
government installations. Hundreds were killed last September in a massive
bomb explosion in Xinjiang's main city, Urmuqi.
