Afridi asks PM Khan to speak up for Chinese Muslims

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to “speak up” for Uighur Muslims in China and requested the Chinese government to give “humane” and “just” treatment to Muslims.

“Hearing of atrocities committed against the Uighur Muslims is heartbreaking,” he said in a tweet on Sunday. The all-rounder reminded PM Khan that “our brothers and sisters” in China are also part of the Muslim Ummah.

Hearing of atrocities committed against the #UighurMuslims is heartbreaking. I request @ImranKhanPTI to speak up against this; talk of uniting the Muslim ummah includes our brothers sisters in China too. @CathayPak is requested to address the humane just treatment of Muslims https://t.co/0D6MNZWztV

— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) December 22, 2019

China has been facing criticism for detaining an estimated one million Uighurs and other Muslims in internment camps in Xinjiang.

Uighur activists had claimed last month that they have documented nearly 500 camps and prisons run by China to detain members of the ethnic group.

The East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, a Washington-based group that seeks independence for the mostly Muslim region known to China as Xinjiang, gave the geographic coordinates of 182 suspected “concentration camps” where Uighurs are allegedly pressured to renounce their culture.

Researching images from Google Earth, the group said it also spotted 209 suspected prisons and 74 suspected labor camps for which it would share details later.

Rights advocates have generally estimated that China is detaining more than a million Uighurs and members of other predominantly Muslim Turkic ethnicities.

But Randall Schriver, the top Pentagon official for Asia, said in May that the figure was “likely closer to three million citizens” — an extraordinary number in a region of around 20 million people.

China’s foreign ministry, however, has said the allegations were “baseless.”

“East Turkestan organizations outside China have long conducted activities harming China’s national security,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang had told reporters last month.

He said it was “clear for all to see” that China’s policies in Xinjiang had promoted “ethnic unity and social harmony” in recent years.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/news/2019/12/afridi-asks-pm-khan-to-speak-up-for-chinese-muslims/