The January 2007 Xinjiang raid was carried out on January 5, 2007 by the Chinese police against a suspected

East Turkestan Islamic Movement The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) or the Turkistan Islamic Movement (TIM), formerly known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other names, is a Uyghur Islamic extremist organization founded in Western China. Its stated goals ar ...

(ETIM) training camp in

Akto County Akto County (also known as Aqtu, Aktu, or Aketao; ) is a Counties of China, county in Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The county borders Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and has two Towns of Chin ...

in the

Pamir Pamir may refer to: Geographical features * Pamir Mountains, a mountain range in Central Asia ** Pamir-Alay, a mountain system in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, part of the Pamir Mountains *A pamir (valley) is a high plateau or valley surro ...

plateau. A spokesperson for the

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

Public Security Department The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...

said that 18 terror suspects were killed and 17 captured. Those captured were either sentenced to death or life imprisonment. The raid also resulted in the death of one Chinese

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

officer Huang Qiang, age 21, and the injury of another officer. Authorities confiscated hand grenades, guns, and makeshift explosives from the site. ETIM is classified by the United Nations as a terrorist organization. In reaction, many exiled Uyghur leaders quickly questioned the motives behind the raid.

Rebiya Kadeer Rebiya Kadeer ( ug, رابىيە قادىر, translit=Rabiye Qadir; born 15 November 1946) is an ethnic Uyghur businesswoman and political activist. Born in Altay City, Xinjiang, Kadeer became a millionaire in the 1980s through her real estate ...

, a Uyghur human rights activist, called for an independent UN investigation into the raid, while

Alim Seytoff The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups that claims to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's ...

, executive chairman of the World Uighur Congress, claimed the

Chinese government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, mili ...

has yet to produce evidence to substantiate the camp's connections to terrorism. In response, Zhao Yongchen, vice head of the Xinjiang counterterrorism forces, reiterated the reality of the camp's terrorist threat. By June 2017, a United States official stated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was still evaluating the validity of China's terrorism claim, maintaining that there were no terrorist activities by international actors in the country from 2002 to 2007.

References

Terrorism in China 2007 in China East Turkestan independence movement Xinjiang conflict {{Mil-hist-stub

See also

References