Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said Pakistan accepts the “Chinese version” of the treatment of Uighurs, a minority Muslim ethnic group, in China’s restive Xinjiang province because of Islamabad’s “extreme proximity and relationship” with Beijing. The US and the EU, besides many other countries, have accused China of committing genocide against the Uighurs in resource-rich Xinjiang, and called for an international probe by human rights groups.
It has been widely reported that millions of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang province of China are suffering genocide at the hands of the ruling Communist Party of China. However, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan while speaking to a Chinese journalist, said that the Chinese version of the Uyghur situation was completely different from what was being reported in Western media. “Because of our extreme proximity and relationship with China, we actually accept the Chinese version,” he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper. According to researchers, an estimated 1 million people or more — most of them Uighurs –have been confined in re-education camps in China’s western Xinjiang region in recent years. Chinese authorities have been accused of imposing forced labour, systematic forced birth control, torture and separating children from incarcerated parents.
China has been vehemently refuting allegations of interning millions of Uigurs in mass detention camps, which were officially termed as education camps, in a bid to wean them away from religious extremism.
