Beijing, Aug 4 :After directly blaming terrorist camps in Pakistan for training Uyghur militants, China today sought to mollify its all-weather ally, lauding its “outstanding contribution” in fighting terrorism.
China, for the first time this week, pointed fingers at training camps in Pakistan run by the separatist East Turkemenistan Islamic Movement, after the troubled Xinjiang province witnessed two attacks reportedly targetting Han Chinese settlers in the Uyghur-dominated region.
Following the statement, Pakistan promised to lend full support to China to pin down the culprits.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, said today that Beijing will step up its anti-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan in an effort to maintain regional peace and stability.
In a statement, he also praised Pakistan's achievements in the fight against terrorism “thus far”, saying the country is an important frontline state in the international fight against terrorism and has made “outstanding contributions” in the area.
“China and Pakistan have forged excellent cooperation in anti-terrorism,” he said, vowing that China will continue to boost cooperation with Pakistan and jointly crack down against the “three evil forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism,” state-run Xinhua quoted him as saying.
There was no direct reference to the recent allegation by the Kashghar city government which stated that the leaders of the militant ETIM, who took part in the last weekend attacks in the city, were trained terrorist camps in Pakistan. PTI
