How Pakistan Is Helping China Crack Down on Uyghur Muslims
Pakistan was once an escape route of choice for many Uyghurs. Today long-standing members of the country’s Uyghur community fear for their future.
June 28, 2021
Pakistani businessman Mirza Imran Baig shows his picture taken with his Uyghur wife Malika Mamiti outside the Pakistan’s embassy in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. He says his wife is unable to leave China in the latest example of how a sweeping crackdown has spilled across borders.
Credit: AP Photo/Andy Wong
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On May 7, in the hours after Friday prayers, textile and carpet merchant Abdul Wali was preparing to lock up his shop in Islamabad in preparation for the COVID-19 lockdown that had been imposed in the Pakistani capital. The deputy commissioner had announced that public transport would be suspended after 6 p.m., so Wali faced a race against time if he wanted to catch one of the last few buses heading north to spend Eid-ul-Fitr with his family like every year.