URUMQI (China), May 27: China said on Monday that Pakistan had handed over a key leader of Chinese Muslim separatists who fought alongside the Taliban.

It said another 400 suspected fighters had been captured in Afghanistan or on their return to China.

Ismail Kadir, who Beijing says helped spearhead a separatist Uighur movement in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, was detained by Pakistan authorities as he attended a secret meeting in Kashmir, Xinjiang’s Communist Party Secretary said.

“There were 10 people in charge of the East Turkestan forces and Ismail Kadir was caught and is right now in our hands,” Wang Lequan told reporters, adding that China had helped Pakistan confirm his identity.

But Wang said Hasan Mahsum, who China alleges is the overseas ringleader of Chinese Muslims fighting for an independent state of East Turkestan in Xinjiang, remained at large.

Monday’s briefing was carefully orchestrated to highlight China’s own efforts in the “war on terror” for a group of foreign journalists on a rare tour of Xinjiang. The strategically important region borders Pakistan, Central Asia and Afghanistan, and has vast untapped energy reserves including oil and gas.

China has blamed Uighur separatists for more than 200 violent incidents between 1990 and 2001 in Xinjiang, and says Osama bin Laden provided financial and material aid to them. Wang said of more than 1,000 Chinese Muslim Uighurs who had fought alongside the Taliban, over 100 had been caught by China as they attempted to return.

Another 300 were captured while in Afghanistan, he said, citing intelligence sources. The rest were still in Pakistan or just over the border in Afghanistan, he said.—Reuters