BEIJING, Jan 21: China published a lengthy justification on Monday of its crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang, alleging they were violent terrorists funded by Osama bin Laden.

The document, issued by China’s cabinet, the State Council, maintains that groups advocating a separate state of East Turkestan have close links with international terrorists.

“The ‘East Turkestan’ terrorist organization based in South Asia has the unstinting support of Osama bin Laden and is an important part of his terrorist forces,” the document said.

“The Chinese government has not taken advantage of any opportunity to institute suppression,” the document said, adding China targeted only suspected separatists, not the general population.

One organization, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, headed by Hasan Mahsum, a member of Xinjiang’s Turkic-speaking ethnic Uighur community, is directly backed by Osama, the report said.

“Since the formation of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, (Osama) bin Laden has schemed with the heads of the Central and West Asian terrorist organizations many times to help the East Turkestan terrorist forces in Xinjiang to launch a holy war, with the aim of setting up a theocratic ‘Islam state’ in Xinjiang.”—AFP