174-806: Non-state Opponents 1989–2006 2007–present The Turkistan Islamic Party ( TIP ) is a Uyghur Islamic militant organization founded in Pakistan by Hasan Mahsum . Its stated goals are to establish an Islamic state in Xinjiang and Central Asia . The Chinese government asserts that the TIP is synonymous with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement ( ETIM ). ETIM has been described by scholars as demanding total independence and supporting or being indifferent to more radical methods driven by religious and ethnic motives. Influenced by
348-645: A Facebook page which had been created in September 2012 and had a few " likes " and a "handful of messages written in English". According to then TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, the page was being "temporarily" used before the TTP would plan to launch its own website. SITE Intelligence Group described the Facebook page as a "recruitment center" looking for people to edit the TTP's quarterly magazine and videos. The page
522-423: A Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and identified Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali ur-Rehman as specially designated global terrorists. The designation of the TTP as an FTO makes it a crime to provide support or to do business with the group and also allows the U.S. to freeze its assets. The US State Department also issued a $ 5 million reward for information on the two individuals' locations. In January 2011,
696-484: A Logistics Division. In 2008, TIP's Ṣawt al-Islām (Voice of Islam) media arm was created and began releasing video messages. The full name of their media center is "Turkistan Islamic Party Voice of Islam Media Center" (Uyghur: تۈركىستان ئىسلام پارتىيىسى ئىسلام ئاۋازى تەشۋىقات مەركىزى; Türkistan Islam Partiyisi Islam Awazi Teshwiqat Merkizi). In October 2008, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security released
870-652: A US-China quid pro quo, where China supported the US-led War on Terror , and "support of the US for the condemnation of ETIM was connected to that support." The Uyghur American Association has publicly doubted the ETIM's existence. Andrew McGregor, writing for the Jamestown Foundation in 2010, noted that "though there is no question a small group of Uyghur militants fought alongside their Taliban hosts against
1044-628: A Uyghur tribe appears in accounts from the Northern Wei (4th–6th century A.D.), wherein they were named 袁紇 Yuanhe (< MC ZS * ɦʉɐn-ɦət ) and derived from a confederation named 高车 / 高車 ( lit. "High Carts"), read as Gāochē in Mandarin Chinese but originally with the reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation *[kɑutɕʰĭa], later known as the Tiele ( 铁勒 / 鐵勒 , Tiělè ). Gāochē in turn has been connected to
1218-583: A genetically isolated local population that "adopted neighbouring pastoralist and agriculturalist practices, which allowed them to settle and thrive along the shifting riverine oases of the Taklamakan Desert." These mummified individuals were long suspected to have been " Proto-Tocharian -speaking pastoralists", ancestors of the Tocharians , but the authors of this study found no genetic connection with Indo-European -speaking migrants, particularly
1392-411: A jihad article from ETIM, whose membership it said consisted primarily of " Uyghur Muslims from Western China ." The TIP's primary goal is the independence of East Turkestan . ETIM continues this theme of contrasting "Muslims" and "Chinese", in a six-minute video in 2008, where "Commander Seyfullah" warns Muslims not to bring their children to the 2008 Summer Olympics , and also saying "do not stay on
1566-777: A link between the Karakhanid and the Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate, although this connection is disputed by others. The Karakhanids converted to Islam in the tenth century beginning with Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan , the first Turkic dynasty to do so. Modern Uyghurs see the Muslim Karakhanids as an important part of their history; however, Islamization of the people of the Tarim Basin was a gradual process. The Indo-Iranian Saka Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan
1740-558: A list of eight terrorists linked to ETIM, including some of the leadership, with detailed charges. They are: The United States captured 22 Uyghur militants from combat zones in Afghanistan in 2006 on information that they were linked to Al-Qaeda . They were imprisoned without trial for five to seven years, where they testified that they were trained by ETIM leader Abdul Haq, at an ETIM training camp. After being found No Longer Enemy Combatant , i.e. never having been enemy combatants,
1914-460: A matter of fact there was for centuries no 'national' name for them; people identified themselves with the oasis they came from, such as Kashgar or Turfan. The term "Uyghur" was not used to refer to a specific existing ethnicity in the 19th century: it referred to an 'ancient people'. A late-19th-century encyclopedia entitled The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia said "the Uigur are
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#17327915840782088-514: A movement akin to Islamic pan-Turkism historically congruent with southern Xinjiang rather than pure, radical Salafi jihadism or religious extremism. The revolt lasted several days and was put down by the Chinese government , which deployed significant forces to suppress the insurrection. The Chinese government viewed them as a jihadist movement akin to the mujahideen in Afghanistan across
2262-465: A one-week period. All of these four leaders, among them former TTP deputy leader Sheikh Khalid Haqqani and Hakimullah Mehsud group leader Sheharyar Mehsud, were killed within a month of each other as well. The TTP's "media arm" is "Umar Media". Umar Media provides a "behind the scenes" look at Taliban attacks. Video clips are made in Pashto with Urdu subtitles. Umar Media also reportedly operated
2436-471: A panel of judges ordered them released into the United States. Despite the alarm of politicians that the release of embittered former Guantanamo detainees into the United States was unsafe and illegal, the United States did not want to release them back to China as they were wanted on charges that included arson and illegal manufacture of explosives, though ABC News wrote that "It is believed that if
2610-694: A people European in appearance indicates the migration of a European-looking people into the Tarim area at the beginning of the Bronze Age around 1800 BC. These people may have been of Tocharian origin, and some have suggested them to be the Yuezhi mentioned in ancient Chinese texts. The Tocharians are thought to have developed from the Indo-European speaking Afanasevo culture of Southern Siberia (c. 3500–2500 BC). A study published in 2021 showed that
2784-697: A real threat to Pakistan. They may not be obeying the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar." Some regional experts state that the common name "Taliban" may be more misleading than illuminating. Gilles Dorronsoro of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace believes that "[t]he fact that they have the same name causes all kinds of confusion." As the Pakistani Army began offensives against the Pakistani Taliban, many unfamiliar with
2958-572: A senior analyst at International Crisis Group (ICG), the Islamic State (IS) fighters who started the ISIS-K branch of ISIS were TTP militants who had long settled in Afghanistan. He claims that many members of the TTP fled Pakistan and went to seek refuge in Afghanistan as a result of military operations conducted by Pakistan security forces. In Afghanistan, National Directorate of Security (NDS) tried to persuade them to fight against Pakistan and
3132-589: A separate group called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar , led by the Mohmand Agency commander Omar Khalid Khorosani, after disagreeing with Fazlullah's order to fight the Pakistani Army's Operation Zarb-e-Azb offensive in the Tribal Areas. However, in March 2015, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar's spokesman announced that they were rejoining the TTP. Some Uzbek and Arab fighters previously working with
3306-521: A southwest and northeast differentiation in the population, partially caused by the Tianshan Mountains which form a natural barrier, with gene flows from the east and west. The study identifies four major ancestral components that may have arisen from two earlier admixed groups: one that migrated from the west harbouring a West-Eurasian component associated with European ancestry (25–37%) and a South Asian ancestry component (12–20%) and one from
3480-403: A spokesman from the TTP's Malakand division revealed to The Express Tribune that TTP militants "regularly move across the porous border" to stage attacks against Pakistan but had only been in Afghanistan for a few months previously, contrary to Pakistani claims that the TTP had long used Afghan territory as a staging ground. Both governments blame the other for harboring Taliban militants along
3654-523: A symbiotic relationship: T.T.P. draws ideological guidance from Al Qaeda, while Al Qaeda relies on the T.T.P. for safe haven in the Pashtun areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border... This mutual cooperation gives T.T.P. access to both Al Qaeda's global terrorist network and the operational experience of its members. Given the proximity of the two groups and the nature of their relationship, T.T.P.
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#17327915840783828-718: Is a force multiplier for Al Qaeda." Ayesha Siddiqa of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars describes the TTP as "a franchise of al Qaeda" and attributes strong ties to al-Qaeda's acquisition of "a more local character over the years." Since the days of the Soviet era, some al-Qaeda operatives have established themselves in Pashtun areas and enmeshed themselves in the local culture. In 2008 Baitullah Mehsud met with Ayman al-Zawahiri in South Waziristan. Prior to this meeting
4002-820: Is commonly shortened to Ghazi Brigade or Ghazi Force , emerged as a jihadi organization after the Lal Masjid Operation of 2007. In 2009 the Ghazi Brigade worked closely with the TTP during military operations in the Swat Valley, and the two groups jointly planned attacks on western targets in Islamabad. The TTP and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) have a long history of collaboration. At one point prior to his appointment as TTP chief, Baitullah Mehsud lived with Tohir Yo'ldosh ,
4176-677: Is just a figurehead now... He can hardly communicate with his commanders in other parts of the tribal areas ... he is in total isolation. Only a few people within the TTP know where he is." A December 2011 report published in The Express Tribune further described the network as "crumbling" with "funds dwindling and infighting intensifying." According to various TTP operatives, the difficulties stemmed from differences of opinion within TTP leadership on pursuing peace talks with Islamabad. In December 2012 senior Pakistan military officials told Reuters that Hakimullah Mehsud had lost control of
4350-544: Is located in the historical region of Dzungaria . The largest community of Uyghurs living outside of Xinjiang are the Taoyuan Uyghurs of north-central Hunan 's Taoyuan County . Significant diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in other Turkic countries such as Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Uzbekistan and Turkey. Smaller communities live in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Australia, Russia and Sweden. Since 2014,
4524-492: Is not so tightly controlled. However, they found that ETIM's existence and activities could be confirmed independently of Chinese government sources, using information gleaned from ETIM's now-defunct website, reports from human rights groups and academics, and testimony from the Uyghur detainees at Guantanamo Bay . Reed & Raschke also question the information put out by Uyghur expatriates that deny ETIM's existence or impact, as
4698-522: Is nothing else between us." Peshawar-based security analyst Brigadier (retd) Muhamaad Saad believes the Taliban are not a monolithic entity. "They can be divided into three broad categories: [Afghan] Kandahari Taliban, led by Mullah Omar; [Afghan] Paktia Taliban, led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin Haqqani; and [Pakistani] Salfi Taliban [TTP]," he said. "It's the Salfi Taliban who pose
4872-433: Is usually pronounced in English as / ˈ w iː ɡ ʊər , - ɡ ər / WEE -goor, -gər (and thus may be preceded by the indefinite article "a"), although some Uyghurs advocate the use of a more native pronunciation / ˌ uː i ˈ ɡ ʊər / OO -ee- GOOR instead (which, in contrast, calls for the indefinite article "an"). The term's original meaning is unclear. Old Turkic inscriptions record
5046-577: The Afanasievo or BMAC cultures. The Uighurs are the people whom old Russian travelers called " Sart " (a name they used for sedentary, Turkish-speaking Central Asians in general), while Western travelers called them Turki, in recognition of their language. The Chinese used to call them "Ch'an-t'ou" ('Turbaned Heads') but this term has been dropped, being considered derogatory, and the Chinese, using their own pronunciation, now called them Weiwuerh. As
5220-633: The Afghan–Pakistani border . Formed in 2007 by Baitullah Mehsud , its current leader is Noor Wali Mehsud , who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban (a.k.a. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan). The Pakistani Taliban share a common ideology with the Afghan Taliban and have assisted them in the 2001–2021 war , but the two groups have separate operation and command structures. Most Taliban groups in Pakistan coalesce under
5394-566: The BBC that he would assume temporary leadership of the TTP and that Muslim Khan would serve as the organization's primary spokesperson. He also maintained that Baitullah had not been killed, but rather was in bad health. Faqir further elaborated that decisions over leadership of the umbrella group would only be made in consultation and consensus with a variety of different TTP leaders. "The congregation of TTP leaders has 32 members and no important decision can be taken without their consultation," he told
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5568-541: The Chinese government has been accused by various organizations, such as Human Rights Watch of subjecting Uyghurs living in Xinjiang to widespread persecution , including forced sterilization and forced labor. Scholars estimate that at least one million Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in the Xinjiang internment camps since 2017; Chinese government officials claim that these camps, created under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping 's administration , serve
5742-714: The Dzungar genocide . The Qing "final solution" of genocide to solve the problem of the Dzungar Mongols created a land devoid of Dzungars, which was followed by the Qing sponsored settlement of millions of other people in Dzungaria. In northern Xinjiang, the Qing brought in Han, Hui, Uyghur, Xibe, Daurs, Solons, Turkic Muslim Taranchis and Kazakh colonists, with one third of Xinjiang's total population consisting of Hui and Han in
5916-711: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The TTP and the Punjabi Taliban both claimed the 2009 Lahore bombing shortly after the attack. On 24 August 2013, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed that the head of the Punjabi Taliban faction, Asmatullah Muawiya, had been stripped of his leadership for welcoming the Pakistani government's peace talks offer. Muawiya responded by saying that
6090-596: The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan , and the Pakistani Taliban . The US has designated it as having received "training and financial assistance" from al-Qaeda. University of Virginia associate professor Philip B. K. Potter wrote in 2013 that, even though "throughout the 1990s, Chinese authorities went to great lengths to publicly link organizations active in Xinjiang—particularly the ETIM—to al-Qaeda [...]
6264-695: The Jinnah International Airport attack . The militants who participated in the attack were Uzbeks belonging to the IMU, and the TTP described the attack as a joint operation between TTP and IMU. The Punjabi Taliban reportedly developed strong connections with the TTP, the Afghan Taliban , Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi and various other groups based in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and
6438-539: The Kingdom of Qocho and Kara-Khanid Khanate formed after the dissolution of the Uyghur Khaganate. Historians generally agree that the adoption of the term "Uyghur" is based on a decision from a 1921 conference in Tashkent , attended by Turkic Muslims from the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang). There, "Uyghur" was chosen by them as the name of their ethnicity, although they themselves note that they were not to be confused with
6612-563: The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi , the Musa Shaheed Karwan group, Mehsud factions of the TTP, Mohmand Taliban, Bajaur Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar , and Hizb-ul-Ahrar merged with TTP. This reorganization made TTP more deadly and led to increased attacks. In 2020, after years of factionalism and infighting, the TTP under the leadership of Noor Wali Mehsud underwent reorganization and reunification. Mehsud has essentially steered
6786-814: The Mongol Empire , but was finally destroyed by the Chagatai Khanate by the end of the 14th century. In the tenth century, the Karluks , Yagmas , Chigils and other Turkic tribes founded the Kara-Khanid Khanate in Semirechye , Western Tian Shan , and Kashgaria and later conquered Transoxiana . The Karakhanid rulers were likely to be Yaghmas who were associated with the Toquz Oghuz and some historians therefore see this as
6960-653: The Mongols , the Tibetans , and various Turkic polities. The Uyghurs gradually started to become Islamized in the 10th century, and most Uyghurs identified as Muslims by the 16th century. Islam has since played an important role in Uyghur culture and identity. An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs still live in the Tarim Basin . The rest of Xinjiang's Uyghurs mostly live in Ürümqi , the capital city of Xinjiang , which
7134-492: The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), including Swat , Bannu , Tank , Lakki Marwat , Dera Ismail Khan , Kohistan , Buner , and Malakand . Some 2008 estimates placed the total number of operatives at 30–35,000, although it is difficult to judge the reliability of such estimates. In the aftermath of Baitullah Mehsud's death, the organization experienced turmoil among its leading militants. By
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7308-706: The Northern Alliance [...] the scores of terrorists Beijing claimed that Bin Laden was sending to China in 2002 never materialized" and that "the TIP's 'strategy' of making loud and alarming threats (attacks on the Olympics, use of biological and chemical weapons, etc.) without any operational follow-up has been enormously effective in promoting China's efforts to characterize Uyghur separatists as terrorists." On 16 June 2009, US Representative Bill Delahunt convened hearings to examine how organizations were added to
7482-432: The SITE Intelligence Group , the al-Qaeda aligned al-Fajr Media Center began to distribute TIP promotional material, placing it in the "jihadist mainstream". The East Turkestan independence movement was endorsed in the serial Islamic Spring' s 9th release by Ayman Al-Zawahiri in 2016. Zawahiri confirmed that the Afghanistan war after 9/11 included the participation of Uighurs and that the jihadists like Zarwaqi, Bin Ladin and
7656-467: The Syrian Civil War as part of a network of al-Qaeda linked groups alongside al-Nusra, most notably in the 2015 Jisr al-Shughur offensive where they were part of the Army of Conquest coalition. They have been described as well organized, experienced and as having an important role in offensives against President Bashar al-Assad 's forces in Syria's northern regions. The NEFA Foundation , an American terrorist analyst foundation, translated and released
7830-401: The Tiele , who lived in the valleys south of Lake Baikal and around the Yenisei River . They overthrew the First Turkic Khaganate and established the Uyghur Khaganate . The Uyghur Khaganate lasted from 744 to 840. It was administered from the imperial capital Ordu-Baliq , one of the biggest ancient cities built in Mongolia. In 840, following a famine and civil war, the Uyghur Khaganate
8004-455: The Toquz Oghuz . The name fell out of use in the 15th century, but was reintroduced in the early 20th century by the Soviet Bolsheviks to replace the previous terms Turk and Turki . The name is currently used to refer to the settled Turkic urban dwellers and farmers of the Tarim Basin who follow traditional Central Asian sedentary practices, distinguishable from the nomadic Turkic populations in Central Asia. The earliest record of
8178-419: The Uyghur Qangqil ( قاڭقىل or Қаңқил). Throughout its history, the term Uyghur has had an increasingly expansive definition. Initially signifying only a small coalition of Tiele tribes in northern China, Mongolia and the Altai Mountains , it later denoted citizenship in the Uyghur Khaganate . Finally, it was expanded into an ethnicity whose ancestry originates with the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in
8352-431: The Uyghur Khaganate of medieval history. According to Linda Benson, the Soviets and their client Sheng Shicai intended to foster a Uyghur nationality to divide the Muslim population of Xinjiang, whereas the various Turkic Muslim peoples preferred to identify themselves as "Turki", "East Turkestani" or "Muslim". On the other hand, the ruling regime of China at that time, the Kuomintang , grouped all Muslims, including
8526-433: The World Uyghur Congress claimed a 4,000-year history in East Turkestan. However, the official Chinese view, as documented in the white paper History and Development of Xinjiang , asserts that the Uyghur ethnic group formed after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, when the local residents of the Tarim Basin and its surrounding areas were merged with migrants from the khaganate. The name "Uyghur" reappeared after
8700-413: The titular nationality of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China . They are one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities . The Uyghurs have traditionally inhabited a series of oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert within the Tarim Basin . These oases have historically existed as independent states or were controlled by many civilizations including China ,
8874-567: The "Uighur" name for the Turkic people of Xinjiang was criticized and rejected by Turki intellectuals such as Pan-Turkist Jadids and East Turkestan independence activists Muhammad Amin Bughra (Mehmet Emin) and Masud Sabri . They demanded the names "Türk" or "Türki" be used instead as the ethnonyms for their people. Masud Sabri viewed the Hui people as Muslim Han Chinese and separate from his people, while Bughrain criticized Sheng for his designation of Turkic Muslims into different ethnicities which could sow disunion among Turkic Muslims. After
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#17327915840789048-419: The "Yellow Uyghur" ( Sarïq Uyghur ). Some scholars say the Yugurs' culture, language and religion are closer to the original culture of the original Uyghur Karakorum state than is the culture of the modern Uyghur people of Xinjiang. Linguist and ethnographer S. Robert Ramsey argues for inclusion of both the Eastern and Western Yugur and the Salar as sub-groups of the Uyghur based on similar historical roots for
9222-404: The 1390s, and the Uyghurs there became largely Muslim by the beginning of the 16th century. After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan failed to retain memory of their ancestral legacy and falsely believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" ( Dzungars ) were the ones who built Buddhist structures in their area. From the late 14th through 17th centuries,
9396-401: The 1930s, referring to them by the name "Altishahri" in his article Modular History: Identity Maintenance before Uyghur Nationalism . Thum indicated that Altishahri Turkis did have a sense that they were a distinctive group separate from the Turkic Andijanis to their west, the nomadic Turkic Kirghiz, the nomadic Mongol Qalmaq and the Han Chinese Khitay before they became known as Uyghurs. There
9570-467: The 19th century. The name "Uyghur" reappeared after the Soviet Union took the 9th-century ethnonym from the Uyghur Khaganate , then reapplied it to all non-nomadic Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang. It followed western European orientalists like Julius Klaproth in the 19th century who revived the name and spread the use of the term to local Turkic intellectuals and a 19th-century proposal from Russian historians that modern-day Uyghurs were descended from
9744-409: The 2004 book Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland that there is "scant evidence" to support Uyghur claims that their population within China exceeds 20 million. A study of mitochondrial DNA (2004) (therefore the matrilineal genetic contribution ) found the frequency of Western Eurasian-specific haplogroup in Uyghurs to be 42.6% and East Asian haplogroup to be 57.4%. Uyghurs in Kazakhstan on
9918-440: The 4th century AD. There may also be an Indian component as the founding legend of Khotan suggests that the city was founded by Indians from ancient Taxila during the reign of Ashoka . Other people in the region mentioned in ancient Chinese texts include the Dingling as well as the Xiongnu who fought for supremacy in the region against the Chinese for several hundred years. Some Uyghur nationalists also claimed descent from
10092-479: The Afghan Taliban including Mullah Omar, Jalaluddin Haqqani and Siraj Haqqani are believed to have enjoyed safe haven in Pakistan. In 2006, Jalaluddin Haqqani was called a 'Pakistani asset' by a senior official of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. Pakistan regards the Haqqanis as an important force for protecting its interests in Afghanistan and therefore has been unwilling to move against them. In 2007, Pakistani militants loyal to Baitullah Mehsud created
10266-421: The Afghan Taliban. Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar asked the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in late 2008 and early 2009 to stop attacks inside Pakistan. In February 2009, the three dominant Pakistani Taliban leaders agreed to put aside their differences to help counter a planned increase in American troops in Afghanistan and reaffirmed their allegiance to Mullah Omar (and to Osama bin Laden ). The agreement among
10440-562: The Afghan Taliban. Initially, only few of them fought against Pakistan and Afghan Talibans. However, after that TTP members in Afghanistan changed their allegiance to ISIS-K. Initially, because of their good relations with Afghan armed forces, the locals in Afghanistan thought that they were pro-Afghan government forces based. They also claimed that they were there to fight Afghan Talibans and Pakistan. However, after series of events, ISIS-K also turned hostile towards to Afghan government and locals. The Ghazi Abdul Rashid Shaheed Brigade, whose name
10614-531: The American presence in Afghanistan. Baitullah Mehsud , Hafiz Gul Bahadur , and Maulavi Nazir agreed in February and formed the Shura Ittehadul Mujahideen (SIM), also transliterated as Shura Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen and translated into English as the Council of United Mujahedeen . In a written statement circulated in a one-page Urdu-language pamphlet, the three affirmed that they would put aside differences to fight American-led forces and reasserted their allegiance to Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden . However,
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#173279158407810788-414: The Aqtaghlik Afaqi Khoja into exile. In the 17th century, the Buddhist Dzungar Khanate grew in power in Dzungaria . The Dzungar conquest of Altishahr ended the last independent Chagatai Khanate, the Yarkent Khanate , after the Aqtaghlik Afaq Khoja sought aid from the 5th Dalai Lama and his Dzungar Buddhist followers to help him in his struggle against the Qarataghlik Khojas. The Aqtaghlik Khojas in
10962-461: The BBC. He reported to the AFP that both Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman had approved his appointment as temporary leader of the militant group. Neither militant had publicly confirmed Faqir's statement, and analysts cited by Dawn News believed the assumption of leadership actually indicated a power struggle. Two days later Faqir Mohammed retracted his claims of temporary leadership and said that Hakimullah Mehsud had been selected leader of
11136-417: The British government moved to classify the TTP as a banned terrorist organization under its Terrorism Act 2000 . In July 2011, the Canadian government also added the TTP to its list of banned terrorist organizations. In February 2014, a group of TTP terrorists under the lead of Maulana Umar Qasmi broke away from the organization to form the Ahrar-ul-Hind , in protest against the TTP's negotiations with
11310-470: The China by the late 1950s. After being set free from prison in 1979, Abdul Hakeem Makhdoom instructed Muhammad Amin Jan and other Uyghurs in his version of Islam. The East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP) was organised in Pakistan by Hasan Mahsum and Abudukadir Yapuquan in September 1997. In 1998, Mahsum moved the ETIP (which China claims is the ETIM)'s headquarters to Kabul , taking shelter under Taliban -controlled Afghanistan . The leader, Hasan Mahsum,
11484-554: The Communist victory, the Chinese Communist Party under Chairman Mao Zedong continued the Soviet classification, using the term "Uyghur" to describe the modern ethnicity. In current usage, Uyghur refers to settled Turkic-speaking urban dwellers and farmers of the Tarim Basin and Ili who follow traditional Central Asian sedentary practices, as distinguished from nomadic Turkic populations in Central Asia. However, Chinese government agents designate as "Uyghur" certain peoples with significantly divergent histories and ancestries from
11658-416: The Dzungar conflict, two Aqtaghlik brothers, the so-called "Younger Khoja" ( Chinese : 霍集佔 ), also known as Khwāja-i Jahān, and his sibling, the Elder Khoja ( Chinese : 波羅尼都 ), also known as Burhān al-Dīn, after being appointed as vassals in the Tarim Basin by the Dzungars, first joined the Qing and rebelled against Dzungar rule until the final Qing victory over the Dzungars, then they rebelled against
11832-471: The First and Second Göktürk Khaganates (AD 630–684). The Old History of the Five Dynasties records that in 788 or 809, the Chinese acceded to a Uyghur request and emended their transcription to 回鹘 / 回鶻 (Mandarin: Huíhú , but [ɣuɒiɣuət] in Middle Chinese). Modern etymological explanations for the name Uyghur range from derivation from the verb "follow, accommodate oneself" and adjective "non-rebellious" (i.e., from Turkic uy/uð- ) to
12006-444: The IMU's former leader, who became an ideological inspiration and offered the services of his 2,500 fighters to Mehsud. In April 2009 Muslim Khan listed the IMU among the TTP's allies in an interview with AP. The IMU posted a video online in September 2010 that featured footage of Yo'ldosh's successor, Abu Usman Adil, meeting with Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-Ur-Rahman Mehsud. On 8 June 2014, the TTP accepted responsibility for conducting
12180-427: The Pakistan government. In May 2014 the Mehsud faction of the TTP defected from the main group to form a breakaway unit called Tehreek-e-Taliban South Waziristan led by Khalid Mehsud. The breakaway group was unhappy with the various activities of the TTP, saying in a statement "We consider kidnapping for ransom, extortion, damage to public facilities and bombings to be un-Islamic. TTP Mehsud group believes in stopping
12354-602: The Pakistani Taliban answered to the Afghan Taliban and pro-Pakistan militant commanders. At the time Pakistani authorities believed that Mehsud was in fact an al-Qaeda operative. In February 2009 Baitullah Mehsud, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulavi Nazir released a statement in which they reaffirmed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden. According to United Nation report, ISIS core leadership sends funds to TTP in Afghanistan to "outsource" attacks due to its depleted manpower. The report also claims that ISIS would cease to exist in Afghanistan without these funds. According to Borhan Osman,
12528-520: The Pakistani army in combat. The Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban share the same ideology and a dominant Pashtun ethnicity , but they are distinct movements, differing in their histories, structures and goals. The two groups frequently don't get along with each other. An Afghan Taliban spokesman told The New York Times : "We don't like to be involved with them, as we have rejected all affiliation with Pakistani Taliban fighters ... We have sympathy for them as Muslims, but beside that, there
12702-568: The Pakistani military operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, some of the TTP militants escaped from Pakistan to Afghanistan, where some of them joined Islamic State – Khorasan Province , while others remained part of the TTP. As of 2019 , there are around 3,000 to 4,000 TTP militants in Afghanistan, according to a United States Department of Defense report. Between July and November 2020, the Amjad Farouqi group, one faction of
12876-697: The Qing in the Revolt of the Altishahr Khojas (1757–1759), an action which prompted the invasion and conquest of the Tarim Basin by the Qing in 1759. The Uyghurs of Turfan and Hami such as Emin Khoja were allies of the Qing in this conflict, and these Uyghurs also helped the Qing rule the Altishahr Uyghurs in the Tarim Basin. The final campaign against the Dzungars in the 1750s ended with
13050-731: The S Wing of the Pakistani ISI provided direct support to three major groups carrying out attacks in Afghanistan: the Afghan Taliban based in Quetta, Pakistan, commanded by Mullah Muhammad Omar ; the militant network run by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ; and a different group run by the guerrilla leader Jalaluddin Haqqani , all considered a strategic asset by Pakistan in contrast to the TTP run by Hakimullah Mehsud, which has engaged
13224-787: The SIM did not last very long and collapsed shortly after its announcement. Qari Mehsud indicated in a video recorded in April 2010 the TTP would make cities in the United States a "main target" in response to U.S. drone attacks on TTP leaders . The TTP claimed responsibility for the December 2009 suicide attack on CIA facilities in Camp Chapman in Afghanistan, as well as the attempted bombing in Times Square in May 2010. In July 2012,
13398-509: The Soviet Union took the 9th-century ethnonym from the Uyghur Khaganate, then reapplied it to all non-nomadic Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang. Many contemporary western scholars, however, do not consider the modern Uyghurs to be of direct linear descent from the old Uyghur Khaganate of Mongolia. Rather, they consider them to be descendants of a number of peoples, one of them the ancient Uyghurs. Discovery of well-preserved Tarim mummies of
13572-432: The TTP and Punjabi Taliban, Muawiya announced that the Punjabi Taliban was ending their activities within Pakistan to focus on American soldiers in Afghanistan on 13 September 2014. US officials admitted to The New York Times that they found it increasingly difficult to separate the operations of the various Pakistani militant groups active in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Individuals and groups that are believed to have
13746-444: The TTP and pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS). The TTP differs in structure to the Afghan Taliban in that it lacks a central command and is a much looser coalition of various militant groups, united by hostility towards the central government in Islamabad. Several analysts describe the TTP's structure as a loose network of dispersed constituent groups that vary in size and in levels of coordination. The various factions of
13920-607: The TTP in a new direction, sparing civilians and ordering assaults only on security and law enforcement personnel, in an attempt to rehabilitate the group's image and distance them from the Islamic State militant group's extremism. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistan was unable to persuade the Afghan Taliban to crack down on the TTP. The Afghan Taliban instead mediated talks between Pakistan and
14094-503: The TTP leaders was short-lived, however, and instead of fighting alongside the Afghan Taliban the rival Pakistani factions soon engaged in combat with each other. Many Afghan Taliban officials resent the TTP's violent campaign against Pakistan. Afghan Talibans and TTP have also conducted attacks against each other. On 10 October 2013, heavily armed Afghan Talibans attacked a TTP base in Kunar province of Afghanistan . The attack resulted in
14268-650: The TTP reportedly began leaving Pakistan to go to Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant . In the same month, Asmatullah Muawiya, the commander of the Punjabi Taliban , announced that his faction was ending their armed struggle against the Pakistani state. In October 2014, the TTP's spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid , and the group's commanders in Orakzai , Kurram and Khyber tribal regions and Peshawar and Hangu Districts defected from
14442-460: The TTP tend to be limited to their local areas of influence and often lack the ability to expand their operations beyond that territory. In its original form, the TTP had Baitullah Mehsud as its amir . He was followed in the leadership hierarchy by Hafiz Gul Bahadur as naib amir, or deputy. Faqir Mohammed was the third most influential leader. The group contained members from all of FATA's seven tribal agencies as well as several districts of
14616-572: The TTP threatened to attack Myanmar in the wake of sectarian violence against Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan state. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah demanded the Pakistani government sever relations with Myanmar and close the Burmese embassy in Islamabad, and warned of attacks against Burmese interests if no action was taken. While the TTP has been conducting an insurgency in Pakistan, its ability to expand operations to other countries has been questioned. This
14790-577: The TTP until the group determined how to proceed. Reuters, citing a report from The Express Tribune , indicated in July 2011 that Hakimullah Mehsud's grip on the TTP leadership was weakening after the defection of Fazal Saeed Haqqani, the TTP leader in the Kurram region, from the umbrella militant group. Haqqani cited disagreements over attacks on civilians as reason for the split. The paper quoted an associate of Mehsud's as saying that "it looks as though he
14964-459: The TTP's Peshawar school massacre , the leaders of the Afghan Taliban condemned the TTP's actions on the school, saying it was "Un-Islamic". However, despite the atrocities of the TTP, Pakistan was unable to persuade the Afghan Taliban to crack down on the TTP when the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021. Instead, the Afghan Taliban mediated talks between Pakistan and the TTP that led to
15138-452: The TTP, effectively established their authority in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) by concurrently engaging in military attacks and negotiating with Islamabad . By this time, the militants had killed around 200 rival tribal elders in the region to consolidate control. Several Pakistani analysts also cite the inception of U.S. missile strikes in the FATA as a catalyzing factor in
15312-427: The TTP, leading to the release of dozens of TTP prisoners in Pakistan and a temporary ceasefire between the Pakistani government and the TTP. After the ceasefire expired on 10 December 2021, the TTP increased attacks on Pakistani security forces from sanctuaries inside Afghanistan. The Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan's Khost and Kunar provinces on 16 April 2022 appeared to have been conducted in retaliation to
15486-486: The TTP. Among the stated objectives of TTP is resistance against the Pakistani state. The TTP's aim is to overthrow the government of Pakistan by waging a terrorist campaign against the Pakistan armed forces and the state. The TTP depends on the tribal belt along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, from which it draws its recruits. The TTP receives ideological guidance from and maintains ties with al-Qaeda . After
15660-403: The TTP. Faqir declared that the 42-member shura had also decided that Azam Tariq would serve as the TTP's primary spokesperson, rather than Muslim Khan. Under the leadership of Hakimullah, the TTP intensified its suicide campaign against the Pakistani state and against civilian (particularly Shia , Qadiyani and Sufi ) targets. On 1 September 2010, the United States designated the TTP as
15834-557: The Taliban and the Turkistan Islamic Party. Speaking with Pentagon reporters, US Air Force Maj. Gen. James B. Hecker , commander of NATO Air Command Afghanistan was quoted "The destruction of these training facilities prevents terrorists from planning any acts near the border with China and Tajikistan. The strikes also destroyed stolen Afghan National Army vehicles in the process of being converted to vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices. ETIM enjoys support from
16008-421: The Taliban central Shura (council) did not have the capacity to remove him because the Punjabi Taliban is a separate group. He added that his group has its own decision-making body to decide leadership and other matters. After a US drone strike in Pakistan near Miranshah which killed 2 Punjabi Taliban members and interrupted a period of time with no drone strikes in which the Pakistani government held talks with
16182-562: The Taliban in the mountains of Badakhshan, so hitting these Taliban training facilities and squeezing the Taliban's support networks degrades ETIM capabilities." After the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, TIP was removed from Badakhshan , as the new Afghan government seeks aid from China. TIP (ETIM) sent the "Turkistan Brigade" ( Katibat Turkistani ), also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria to take part in
16356-881: The Tarim Basin and Turfan in the 17th century. The Khojas however split into two rival factions, the Aqtaghlik ("White Mountainers") Khojas (also called the Afaqiyya ) and the Qarataghlik ("Black Mountainers") Khojas (also called the Ishaqiyya). The legacy of the Khojas lasted until the 19th century. The Qarataghlik Khojas seized power in Yarkand where the Chagatai Khans ruled in the Yarkent Khanate, forcing
16530-520: The Tarim Basin then became vassals to the Dzungars. The expansion of the Dzungars into Khalkha Mongol territory in Mongolia brought them into direct conflict with Qing China in the late 17th century, and in the process also brought Chinese presence back into the region a thousand years after Tang China lost control of the Western Regions . The Dzungar–Qing War lasted a decade. During
16704-485: The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and killed around 200 rival Pakistani leaders. They officially defined goals to establish their rule over Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas subsequently engaging the Pakistani army in heavy combat operations. Intelligence analysts believe that these TTP's attacks on the Pakistani government, police and army strained relations between the Pakistani Taliban and
16878-551: The Turkic Muslims of the region as "Turki" in their books. Use of the term Uyghur was unknown in Xinjiang until 1934. The area governor, Sheng Shicai , came to power, adopting the Soviet ethnographic classification instead of the Kuomintang's and became the first to promulgate the official use of the term "Uyghur" to describe the Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang. "Uyghur" replaced "rag-head". Sheng Shicai's introduction of
17052-544: The Turkic-speaking people of Xinjiang, into the " Hui nationality ". The Qing dynasty and the Kuomintang generally referred to the sedentary oasis-dwelling Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang as "turban-headed Hui" to differentiate them from other predominantly Muslim ethnicities in China. In the 1930s, foreigners travelers in Xinjiang such as George W. Hunter , Peter Fleming , Ella Maillart and Sven Hedin , referred to
17226-410: The Turkistan Islamic Party along with other Central-Asian jihadist groups in a report titled Think like Jihadist: Anatomy of Central Asian Salafi groups . Uyghurs The Uyghurs , alternatively spelled Uighurs , Uygurs or Uigurs , are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia . The Uyghurs are recognized as
17400-400: The US blacklist in general, and how the ETIM was added in particular. Uyghur expert Sean Roberts testified that the ETIM was new to him, that it wasn't until it was blacklisted that he heard of the group, and claimed that "it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the organization no longer exists at all." The Congressional Research Service reported that the first published mention of the group
17574-722: The Uighur Hasan Mahsum were provided with refuge together in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. This was before the Bishkek Chinese Embassy Bombing. The Turkistan Islamic Party slammed and attacked Assad, Russia, NATO, the United States and other western countries in its propaganda outlets such as the Islamic Turkestan magazine and its Telegram channel. In February 2018, airstrikes were conducted by American forces in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province against training camps belonging to
17748-617: The United States returned the men to China, they could be tortured." Since the September 11 attacks , the group has been designated as a terrorist organization by the following countries and international organizations: Former: In 2009, Dru C. Gladney , an authority on research on ethnic and cultural nationalism in Asia, said that there was "a credibility gap" about the group since the majority of information on ETIM "was traced back to Chinese sources", and that some believe ETIM to be part of
17922-518: The Uyghur and Uzbek militants was transferred to the Pakistani Taliban from the Afghan Taliban after 2001, so violence against the militant's countries of origins can no longer restrained by the Afghan Taliban since the Pakistani Taliban does not have a stake in doing so. In 2013, the group announced it was moving fighters to Syria, its profile in China and even Afghanistan and Pakistan has decisively waned since then, while in Syria it has risen. The TIP has links to al-Qaeda and affiliated groups such as
18096-580: The Uyghurs as the original inhabitants of Xinjiang with a long history. Uyghur politician and historian Muhammad Amin Bughra wrote in his book A History of East Turkestan , stressing the Turkic aspects of his people, that the Turks have a continuous 9000-year-old history, while historian Turghun Almas incorporated discoveries of Tarim mummies to conclude that Uyghurs have over 6400 years of continuous history, and
18270-460: The Uyghurs who leave Xinjiang are those who object most to government policy, are unable to provide first-hand analysis, and have an incentive to exaggerate repression and downplay militancy. They say that ETIM was "obscure but not unknown" before the September 11 attacks , citing "Western, Russian, and Chinese media sources" that have "documented the ETIM's existence for nearly 20 years". In 2010, Raffaello Pantucci of Jamestown Foundation wrote about
18444-670: The Xinjiang region became further subdivided into Moghulistan in the north, Altishahr (Kashgar and the Tarim Basin), and the Turfan area, each often ruled separately by competing Chagatayid descendants, the Dughlats , and later the Khojas . Islam was also spread by the Sufis , and branches of its Naqshbandi order were the Khojas who seized control of political and military affairs in
18618-644: The Xiongnu (according to the Chinese historical text the Book of Wei , the founder of the Uyghurs was descended from a Xiongnu ruler), but the view is contested by modern Chinese scholars. The Yuezhi were driven away by the Xiongnu but founded the Kushan Empire , which exerted some influence in the Tarim Basin, where Kharosthi texts have been found in Loulan , Niya and Khotan . Loulan and Khotan were some of
18792-745: The Yugur and on perceived linguistic similarities for the Salar. " Turkistani " is used as an alternate ethnonym by some Uyghurs. For example, the Uyghur diaspora in Arabia, adopted the identity " Turkistani ". Some Uyghurs in Saudi Arabia adopted the Arabic nisba of their home city, such as " Al- Kashgari " from Kashgar . Saudi-born Uyghur Hamza Kashgari 's family originated from Kashgar. The Uyghur population within China generally remains centered in Xinjiang region with some smaller subpopulations elsewhere in
18966-501: The authorities, the security campaign against suspected al-Qaeda militants turned into an undeclared war between the Pakistani military and the rebel tribesmen. Many of the TTP's leaders are veterans of the fighting in Afghanistan and have supported the fight against the NATO -led International Security Assistance Force by providing soldiers, training, and logistics . In 2004 various tribal groups, as explained above, that would later form
19140-413: The best information indicates that before 2001, the relationship included some training and funding but relatively little operational cooperation." Meanwhile, specific incidents were downplayed by Chinese authorities as isolated criminal acts. However, in 1998 the group's headquarters were moved to Kabul , in Taliban -controlled Afghanistan , while "China's ongoing security crackdown in Xinjiang has forced
19314-753: The border which gave birth to more radical movements such as the Party of Allah and the Islamic Movement of East Turkistan. The Syrian branch of the TIP is active in the Syrian civil war and are largely grouped in Idlib . Abdul Hameed, Abdul Azeez Makhdoom and Abdul Hakeem Makhdoom launched the Hizbul Islam Li-Turkestan (Islamic Party of Turkistan or Turkistan Islamic Movement) in 1940. They were killed, imprisoned or driven underground by
19488-566: The conquest. The settled population of these cities later merged with the incoming Turkic people, including the Uyghurs of Uyghur Khaganate, to form the modern Uyghurs. The Indo-European Tocharian language later disappeared as the urban population switched to a Turkic language such as the Old Uyghur language . The early Turkic peoples descended from agricultural communities in Northeast Asia who moved westwards into Mongolia in
19662-453: The convictions of two men linked to a ETIM cell in Dubai with a plot to attack a shopping mall. Nick Holdstock, in a 2015 New York Times interview, said that no organization is taking responsibility for attacks in Xinjiang, and that there is not enough proof to blame any organization for the attacks, that most "terrorism" there is "unsubstantiated", and that posting internet videos online is
19836-478: The country, such as in Taoyuan County where an estimated 5,000–10,000 live. The size of the Uyghur population, particularly in China, has been the subject of dispute. Chinese authorities place the Uyghur population within the Xinjiang region to be just over 12 million, comprising approximately half of the total regional population. As early as 2003, however, some Uyghur groups wrote that their population
20010-643: The death of Genghis Khan in 1227, Transoxiana and Kashgar became the domain of his second son, Chagatai Khan . The Chagatai Khanate split into two in the 1340s, and the area of the Chagatai Khanate where the modern Uyghurs live became part of Moghulistan , which meant "land of the Mongols". In the 14th century, a Chagatayid khan Tughluq Temür converted to Islam, Genghisid Mongol nobilities also followed him to convert to Islam. His son Khizr Khoja conquered Qocho and Turfan (the core of Uyghuristan) in
20184-463: The death of three TTP commanders. However, TTP denied any losses. Again on 25 June 2016, Afghan Talibans and TTP clashed with each other in the Kunar province of Afghanistan. Afghan defense ministry claims that eight TTP militants and six Afghan Talibans were killed in the clash. Moreover, Some Sources also claim that TTP was behind the death of Nasiruddin Haqqani because TTP believed that Haqqani Network
20358-516: The descendants of a number of peoples, including the ancient Uyghurs of Mongolia migrating into the Tarim Basin after the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate, Iranic Saka tribes and other Indo-European peoples inhabiting the Tarim Basin before the arrival of the Turkic Uyghurs. Uyghur activists identify with the Tarim mummies , remains of an ancient people inhabiting the region, but research into
20532-511: The diversity of cytochrome B further suggests Uyghurs are closer to Chinese and Siberian populations than to various Caucasoid groups in West Asia or Europe. However, there is significant genetic distance between the Xinjiang's southern Uyghurs and Chinese population, but not between the northern Uyghurs and Chinese. A Study (2016) of Uyghur males living in southern Xinjiang used high-resolution 26 Y-STR loci system high-resolution to infer
20706-595: The earliest Tarim Basin cultures had high levels of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry, with smaller admixture from Northeast Asians . Uyghur activist Turgun Almas claimed that Tarim mummies were Uyghurs because the earliest Uyghurs practiced shamanism and the buried mummies' orientation suggests that they had been shamanists; meanwhile, Qurban Wäli claimed words written in Kharosthi and Sogdian scripts as "Uyghur" rather than Sogdian words absorbed into Uyghur according to other linguists. Later migrations brought peoples from
20880-764: The early 20th century they identified themselves by different names to different peoples and in response to different inquiries: they called themselves Sarts in front of Kazakhs and Kyrgyz while they called themselves "Chantou" if asked about their identity after first identifying as a Muslim. The term "Chantou" ( 纏頭 ; Chántóu , meaning "Turban Head") was used to refer to the Turkic Muslims of Altishahr (now Southern Xinjiang ), including by Hui (Tungan) people. These groups of peoples often identify themselves by their originating oasis instead of an ethnicity; for example those from Kashgar may refer to themselves as Kashgarliq or Kashgari , while those from Hotan identity themselves as "Hotani". Other Central Asians once called all
21054-400: The east, harbouring a Siberian ancestry component (15–17%) and an East Asian ancestry component (29–47%). In total, Uyghurs on average are 33.3% West Eurasian, 32.9% East Asian, 17.9% South Asian, and 16% Siberian. Western parts of Xinjiang are more West Eurasian components than East Eurasian. It suggests at least two major waves of admixture, one ~3,750 years ago coinciding with the age range of
21228-467: The end of August 2009, however, leading members in the TTP had confirmed Hakimullah Mehsud as its second amir. Government and some TTP sources told the media that Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in January 2010 by injuries sustained during a U.S. drone attack. Unconfirmed reports from Orakzai Agency stated, after the death of Hakimullah Mehsud, Malik Noor Jamal, alias Maulana Toofan, had assumed leadership of
21402-469: The end of the day, there is quite a relationship between them." Director of National Intelligence and United States Navy Admiral, Dennis C. Blair , told U.S. senators that the Pakistani state and army meanwhile draw clear distinctions among different militant groups. While links exist between the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, the two groups are distinct enough for the Pakistani military to be able to view them very differently. American officials said that
21576-454: The genetic relationships between the Uyghur population and European and Asian populations. The results showed the Uyghur population of southern Xinjiang exhibited a genetic admixture of Eastern Asian and European populations but with slightly closer relationship with European populations than to Eastern Asian populations. An extensive genome study in 2017 analyzed 951 samples of Uyghurs from 14 geographical subpopulations in Xinjiang and observed
21750-527: The genetics of ancient Tarim mummies and their links with modern Uyghurs remains problematic, both to Chinese government officials concerned with ethnic separatism and to Uyghur activists concerned the research could affect their indigenous claim. A genomic study published in 2021 found that these early mummies had high levels of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry (ANE, about 72%), with smaller admixture from Ancient Northeast Asians (ANA, about 28%), but no detectable Western Steppe-related ancestry . They formed
21924-596: The goals of ensuring adherence to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ideology, preventing separatism , fighting terrorism , and providing vocational training to Uyghurs. Various scholars, human rights organizations and governments consider abuses perpetrated against the Uyghurs to amount to crimes against humanity , or even genocide . In the Uyghur language , the ethnonym is written ئۇيغۇر in Arabic script , Уйғур in Uyghur Cyrillic and Uyghur or Uygur (as
22098-434: The group and that Wali-ur-Rehman was expected to be formally announced as the head of the TTP. However a video released later in the month showed Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman seated next to each other, with Mehsud calling reports of a split between the two as propaganda. Mehsud and Rahman were later killed in separate airstrikes in 2013. In February 2020, the TTP reported the deaths of four TTP senior leaders within
22272-430: The group, froze its bank accounts and assets, and barred it from media appearances. The government also announced that bounties would be placed on prominent leaders of the TTP. In late December 2008 and early January 2009, Mullah Omar sent a delegation, led by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mullah Abdullah Zakir , to persuade leading members of the TTP to put aside differences and aid the Afghan Taliban in combating
22446-463: The inhabitants of Xinjiang's Southern oases Kashgari, a term still used in some regions of Pakistan. The Turkic people also used "Musulman", which means "Muslim", to describe themselves. Rian Thum explored the concepts of identity among the ancestors of the modern Uyghurs in Altishahr (the native Uyghur name for Eastern Turkestan or Southern Xinjiang) before the adoption of the name "Uyghur" in
22620-402: The late 3rd millennium BC, where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle. By the early 1st millennium BC, these peoples had become equestrian nomads . In subsequent centuries, the steppe populations of Central Asia appear to have been progressively Turkified by East Asian nomadic Turks, moving out of Mongolia. The Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate were part of a Turkic confederation called
22794-682: The main group. These include the Lopliks of Ruoqiang County and the Dolan people , thought to be closer to the Oirat Mongols and the Kyrgyz . The use of the term Uyghur led to anachronisms when describing the history of the people. In one of his books, the term Uyghur was deliberately not used by James Millward. Another ethnicity, the Western Yugur of Gansu , identify themselves as
22968-787: The many city-states that existed in the Xinjiang region during the Han dynasty ; others include Kucha , Turfan , Karasahr and Kashgar . These kingdoms in the Tarim Basin came under the control of China during the Han and Tang dynasties. During the Tang dynasty they were conquered and placed under the control of the Protectorate General to Pacify the West , and the Indo-European cultures of these kingdoms never recovered from Tang rule after thousands of their inhabitants were killed during
23142-567: The militants in 2009. The new organization called itself the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) to reflect its new domain and abandoned usage of the name ETIP, although China still calls it by the name ETIM. The Turkistan Islamic Party was originally subordinated to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) but then split off and declared its name as TIP and started making itself known by promoting itself with its Islamic Turkistan magazine and Voice of Islam media in Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Turkish in order to reach out to global jihadists. Control over
23316-543: The most ancient of Turkish tribes and formerly inhabited a part of Chinese Tartary (Xinjiang), now occupied by a mixed population of Turk, Mongol and Kalmuck ". Before 1921/1934, Western writers called the Turkic-speaking Muslims of the oases "Turki" and the Turkic Muslims who had migrated from the Tarim Basin to Ili , Ürümqi and Dzungaria in the northern portion of Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty were known as " Taranchi ", meaning "farmer". The Russians and other foreigners referred to them as "Sart", "Turk" or "Turki". In
23490-431: The most militant Uyghur separatists into volatile neighboring countries, such as Pakistan," Potter writes, "where they are forging strategic alliances with, and even leading, jihadist factions affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban." However, according to the US Treasury, TIP member Abdul Haq al-Turkistani joined al-Qaeda's Majlis-ash-Shura (executive leadership council) in 2005 and TIP member Abdul Shakoor Turkistani
23664-440: The mummies with European feature found in Xinjiang, and another occurring around 750 years ago. A 2018 study of 206 Uyghur samples from Xinjiang, using the ancestry-informative SNP (AISNP) analysis, found that the average genetic ancestry of Uyghurs is 63.7% East Asian-related and 36.3% European-related. The history of the Uyghur people, as with the ethnic origin of the people, is a matter of contention. Uyghur historians viewed
23838-476: The ninth to the fourteenth century and proved to be longer-lasting than any power in the region, before or since. The Uyghurs were originally Tengrists , shamanists, and Manichaean , but converted to Buddhism during this period. Qocho accepted the Qara Khitai as its overlord in the 1130s, and in 1209 submitted voluntarily to the rising Mongol Empire . The Uyghurs of Kingdom of Qocho were allowed significant autonomy and played an important role as civil servants to
24012-683: The northern Uyghur population. A different study by Li et al. (2009) used a larger sample of individuals from a wider area and found a higher East Asian component of about 70% on average, while the European/West Asian component was about 30%. Overall, Uyghur show relative more similarity to "Western East Asians" than to "Eastern East Asians". The authors also cite anthropologic studies which also estimate about 30% "Western proportions", which are in agreement with their genetic results. A study (2013) based on autosomal DNA shows that average Uyghurs are closest to other Turkic people in Central Asia and China as well as various Chinese populations. The analysis of
24186-557: The northern area, while around two thirds were Uyghurs in southern Xinjiang's Tarim Basin. In Dzungaria, the Qing established new cities like Ürümqi and Yining. The Dzungarian basin itself is now inhabited by many Kazakhs. The Qing therefore unified Xinjiang and changed its demographic composition as well. The crushing of the Buddhist Dzungars by the Qing led to the empowerment of the Muslim Begs in southern Xinjiang, migration of Muslim Taranchis to northern Xinjiang, and increasing Turkic Muslim power, with Turkic Muslim culture and identity
24360-514: The only thing done by the "vague and shadowy" ETIM. In 2016, David Volodzko wrote that the Al-Qaeda allied Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party members were fighting in Syria, and refuted and disproved the claims that Uyghurs were not in Syria made by "The Sydney Morning Herald", the Daily Mail, and Bernstein's article in the New York Review of Books. Muhanad Hage Ali wrote on Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party jihadists in Syria for Al Arabiya . In 2019, Uran Botobekov from ModernDiplomat has written about
24534-422: The oppressor from cruelty, and supporting the oppressed." The Mehsuds were widely seen as the most important group in the TTP and their loss was regarded as a major blow. In February 2017, the TTP announced that the Mehsud faction had rejoined the group, following the "defection of the rogue elements to the rival parties". In August 2014, hardline elements of the TTP from four of the seven tribal districts formed
24708-495: The other hand were shown to have 55% European/Western Eurasian maternal mtDNA. A study based on paternal DNA (2005) shows West Eurasian haplogroups (J and R) in Uyghurs make up 65% to 70% and East Asian haplogroups (C, N, D and O) 30% to 35%. One study by Xu et al. (2008), using samples from Hetian ( Hotan ) only, found Uyghurs have about an average of 60% European or West Asian (Western Eurasian) ancestry and about 40% East Asian or Siberian ancestry (Eastern Eurasian). From
24882-454: The overall war against al-Qaeda. ... Since the start of the operation, the [Pakistani] military authorities have firmly established that a large number of Uzbek , Chechen and Arab militants were in the area. ... It was in July 2002 that Pakistani troops, for the first time in 55 years, entered the Tirah Valley ( Orakzai Agency ) in Khyber tribal agency. Soon they were in Shawal valley of North Waziristan, and later in South Waziristan. ... This
25056-426: The region mistakenly thought that the assault was against the Afghan Taliban of Mullah Omar. The TTP has almost exclusively targeted elements of the Pakistani state. The Afghan Taliban however have historically relied on support from the Pakistani army in their campaign to control Afghanistan. Regular Pakistani army troops fought alongside the Afghan Taliban in the War in Afghanistan (1996–2001) . Major leaders of
25230-610: The release of dozens of TTP prisoners in Pakistan. In November 2021, the Afghan Taliban helped facilitate a one-month ceasefire between the government of prime minister Imran Khan and the TTP. The ceasefire was not renewed when it expired, however, and the TTP emir, Noor Wali Mehsud , asked his fighters to resume their attacks in Pakistan from 10 December 2021. In July 2011, after Pakistani missile attacks against Afghan provinces, Pakistani media reports alleged that senior Pakistani Taliban leaders were operating from Afghanistan to launch attacks against Pakistani border posts. According to
25404-425: The reports and denied the possibility of Pakistani Taliban setting up bases in Afghan Taliban-controlled areas. Tameem Nuristani, Governor of Afghanistan's Nuristan Province, told The Express Tribune that while the "Afghan Taliban have never carried out cross-border attacks in Pakistan," TTP militants may have "safe-havens" in Kunar and Nuristan in "areas where the government's writ does not exist". In June 2012
25578-586: The reports, Qari Zia-ur-Rahman hosted Faqir Muhammad in Kunar province while Sheikh Dost Muhammad, a local Afghan Taliban leader, hosted Maulana Fazlullah in Nuristan province . Faqir Muhammad, who claimed responsibility for a 4 July 2011 attack on a paramilitary checkpoint and for similar attacks in June 2011 on several border villages in Bajaur, stated during a radio broadcast, "Our fighters carried out these two attacks from Afghanistan, and we will launch more such attacks inside Afghanistan and in Pakistan." Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid strongly rejected
25752-506: The rise of tribal militancy in the area. More specifically they single out an October 2006 strike on a madrassah in Bajaur that was run by the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi as a turning point. In December 2007, the existence of the TTP was officially announced under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud . It was formed in response to Pakistan military operation against Al-Qaeda militants in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in 2007. On 25 August 2008, Pakistan banned
25926-475: The same area, it is found that the proportion of Uyghur individuals with European/West Asian ancestry ranges individually from 40.3% to 84.3% while their East Asian/Siberian ancestry ranges individually from 15.7% to 59.7%. Further study by the same team showed an average of slightly greater European/West Asian component at 52% (ranging individually from 44.9% to 63.1%) in the Uyghur population in southern Xinjiang but only 47% (ranging individually from 30% to 55%) in
26100-423: The same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are". TIP is led by Abdul Haq al-Turkistani, who's the group's Emir and leader of the Shura Council. The Council also includes a Deputy Emir, and the heads of at least three groups: Religious Education Division, Military Affairs Division and Information Center. There have also been reports of a Intelligence Division and
26274-530: The shared border. In 2009 Pakistan launched offensives to force the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan from its territory in South Waziristan . Some analysts say the fighting pushed TTP militants to the Nuristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan, where they have regrouped to threaten Pakistani border regions. The Pakistani military claims "scanty presence" of NATO and Afghan forces along the border has enabled militants to use these areas as safe havens and launch repeated attacks inside Pakistan. Afghan officials state that
26448-461: The shooting, Interior Minister Rehman Malik could not confirm his death. On 18 August, Pakistani security officials announced the capture of Maulvi Omar , chief spokesperson of the TTP. Omar, who had denied the death of Baitullah, retracted his previous statements and confirmed the leader's death in the missile strike. He also acknowledged turmoil among TTP leadership following the killing. After Omar's capture, Maulana Faqir Mohammed announced to
26622-460: The standard Chinese romanization , GB 3304–1991) in Latin ; they are all pronounced as [ʔʊjˈʁʊːr] . In Chinese , this is transcribed into characters as 维吾尔 / 維吾爾 , which is romanized in pinyin as Wéiwú'ěr . In English, the name is officially spelled Uyghur by the Xinjiang government but also appears as Uighur , Uigur and Uygur (these reflect the various Cyrillic spellings Уиғур, Уигур and Уйгур). The name
26796-467: The success of the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviets in the Soviet–Afghan War , the ETIP (later become known as TIP in 2001) was established in September 1997 by Hasan Mahsum in Pakistan. After 11 September 2001, the Chinese regime strove to include its repression of Uyghur opposition within the international dynamic of the struggle against Islamic terrorist networks. Their slogans contained anti-Communist rhetoric and calls for uniting Turks, indicating
26970-413: The surge in terror attacks in Pakistan. The roots of the TTP as an organization began in 2002 when the Pakistani military conducted incursions into the tribal areas to originally combat foreign ( Afghan , Arab and Central Asian ) militants fleeing from the war in Afghanistan into the neighboring tribal areas of Pakistan . A 2004 article by the BBC explains: The military offensive had been part of
27144-454: The verb meaning "wake, rouse or stir" (i.e., from Turkic oðğur- ). None of these is thought to be satisfactory because the sound shift of /ð/ and /ḏ/ to /j/ does not appear to be in place by this time. The etymology therefore cannot be conclusively determined and its referent is also difficult to fix. The "Huihe" and "Huihu" seem to be a political rather than a tribal designation or it may be one group among several others collectively known as
27318-416: The west and northwest to the Xinjiang region, probably speakers of various Iranian languages such as the Saka tribes, who were closely related to the European Scythians and descended from the earlier Andronovo culture , and who may have been present in the Khotan and Kashgar area in the first millennium BC, as well as the Sogdians who formed networks of trading communities across the Tarim Basin from
27492-465: The withdrawal of US forces out of parts of Kunar province beginning in 2010 created a power vacuum that militants filled. They point to the fact that the Afghan state in some areas has little control due to its war against the Afghan Taliban which are supported by Pakistan according to many international and Afghan institutions, analysts and officials. Pakistan vehemently denies this claim, although some Afghan Taliban commanders stated that their training
27666-416: The word uyɣur (Old Turkic: 𐰆𐰖𐰍𐰆𐰺 ); an example is found on the Sudzi inscription, "I am khan ata of Yaglaqar , came from the Uigur land." (Old Turkic: Uyγur jerinte Yaγlaqar qan ata keltim ). It is transcribed into Tang annals as 回纥 / 回紇 (Mandarin: Huíhé , but probably *[ɣuɒiɣət] in Middle Chinese ). It was used as the name of one of the Turkic polities formed in the interim between
27840-457: The year 842, causing Uyghur migration from Mongolia into the Tarim Basin. The Uyghurs who moved to the Tarim Basin mixed with the local Tocharians , and converted to the Tocharian religion, and adopted their culture of oasis agriculture. The fluid definition of Uyghur and the diverse ancestry of modern Uyghurs create confusion as to what constitutes true Uyghur ethnography and ethnogenesis . Contemporary scholars consider modern Uyghurs to be
28014-410: Was a rare occasion in which it warned of violence in another country. In August 2009, a missile strike from a suspected U.S. drone killed Baitullah Mehsud. The TTP soon held a shura to appoint his successor. Government sources reported that fighting broke out during the shura between Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman . While Pakistani news channels reported that Hakimullah had been killed in
28188-484: Was appointed military commander of its forces in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Abdul Haq was considered sufficiently influential by the al-Qaeda leadership that he served as a mediator between rival Taliban factions and played a role in military planning. In the mid-2010s, TIP's relationship to al-Qaeda was still contested but they became more closely aligned and TIP leader head Abdul Haq confirmed loyalty to al-Qaeda in May 2016. In 2014, according to
28362-463: Was behind the death of Hakimullah Mehsud as they disclosed whereabouts of Hakimullah Mehsud to US military in Afghanistan. Since 2007, the TTP had been responsible for some of the worst terrorist attacks in Pakistan , including the 2014 Peshawar school massacre , and had targeted civilians and security forces in wave after wave of suicide bombings , improvised explosive device (IED) blasts, targeted killings and other forms of attacks. Following
28536-524: Was being vastly undercounted by Chinese authorities, claiming that their population actually exceeded 20 million. Population disputes have continued into the present, with some activists and groups such as the World Uyghur Congress and Uyghur American Association claiming that the Uyghur population ranges between 20 and 30 million. Some have even claimed that the real number of Uyghurs is actually 35 million. Scholars, however, have generally rejected these claims, with Professor Dru C. Gladney writing in
28710-411: Was conquered by the Turkic Muslim Karakhanids from Kashgar in the early 11th century, but Uyghur Qocho remained mainly Buddhist until the 15th century, and the conversion of the Uyghur people to Islam was not completed until the 17th century. The 12th and 13th century saw the domination by non-Muslim powers: first the Kara-Khitans in the 12th century, followed by the Mongols in the 13th century. After
28884-503: Was in the year 2000, but that China attributed attacks to it that had occurred up to a decade earlier. Stratfor has noted repeated unexplained attacks on Chinese buses in 2008 have followed a history of ETIM targeting Chinese infrastructure, and noted the group's splintering and subsequent reorganization following the death of Mahsum. In 2010, intelligence analysts J. Todd Reed and Diana Raschke acknowledge that reporting in China presents obstacles not found in countries where information
29058-572: Was indeed overseen by "ISI officers in a camp in Pakistan" and that they were being armed by Pakistan to fight the Afghan state and international troops in Afghanistan. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has close ties to Al Qaeda , sharing money and bomb experts and makers. John Brennan , President Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, said: "It's a group that is closely allied with al-Qaeda. They train together, they plan together, they plot together. They are almost indistinguishable." Ambassador-at-large Daniel Benjamin stated, "The T.T.P. and Al Qaeda have
29232-479: Was killed by a Pakistani raid on a suspected Al-Qaeda camp in South Waziristan in 2003, leading to the group's collapse. However, ETIP resurged after the Iraq War inflamed mujaheddin sentiment. The group was mentioned again in 2007, when China announced it raided its militants in Akto County . ETIM received material support from the Taliban and had links to the Pakistani Taliban (Tehreek i Taliban Pakistan), prompting China to urge Pakistan to take action against
29406-426: Was made possible after long negotiations with various tribes, who reluctantly agreed to allow the military's presence on the assurance that it would bring in funds and development work. But once the military action started in South Waziristan a number of Waziri sub-tribes took it as an attempt to subjugate them. Attempts to persuade them into handing over the foreign militants failed, and with an apparently mishandling by
29580-501: Was no single name used for their identity; various native names Altishahris used for identify were Altishahrlik (Altishahr person), yerlik (local), Turki and Musulmān (Muslim); the term Musulmān in this situation did not signify religious connotations, because the Altishahris exclude other Muslim peoples like the Kirghiz while identifying themselves as Musulmān. Dr. Laura J Newby says the sedentary Altishahri Turkic people considered themselves separate from other Turkic Muslims since at least
29754-410: Was overrun by the Yenisei Kirghiz , another Turkic people. As a result, the majority of tribal groups formerly under Uyghur control dispersed and moved out of Mongolia. The Uyghurs who founded the Uyghur Khaganate dispersed after the fall of the Khaganate, to live among the Karluks and to places such as Jimsar , Turpan and Gansu . These Uyghurs soon founded two kingdoms and the easternmost state
29928-606: Was soon removed by Facebook and the account suspended. In a May 2010 interview, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus described the TTP's relationship with other militant groups as difficult to decipher: "There is clearly a symbiotic relationship between all of these different organizations: al-Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, TNSM [Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi]. And it's very difficult to parse and to try to distinguish between them. They support each other, they coordinate with each other, sometimes they compete with each other, [and] sometimes they even fight each other. But at
30102-510: Was the Ganzhou Kingdom (870–1036) which ruled parts of Xinjiang, with its capital near present-day Zhangye , Gansu, China. The modern Yugurs are believed to be descendants of these Uyghurs. Ganzhou was absorbed by the Western Xia in 1036. The second Uyghur kingdom, the Kingdom of Qocho ruled a larger section of Xinjiang, also known as Uyghuristan in its later period, was founded in the Turpan area with its capital in Qocho (modern Gaochang ) and Beshbalik . The Kingdom of Qocho lasted from
30276-476: Was tolerated or even promoted by the Qing. It was therefore argued by Henry Schwarz that "the Qing victory was, in a certain sense, a victory for Islam". Pakistani Taliban The Pakistani Taliban ( Urdu : پاکستانی طالبان ), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan ( تحریکِ طالبان پاکستان , lit. ' Pakistani Taliban Movement ' , abbr. TTP ), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along
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