On Tuesday, a Chinese woman walking on the street in Peshawar, Pakistan, was shot and killed. At the time, the motive for the shooting was not known. Now a faction of the Pakistani Taliban is claiming responsibility, saying the crime was carried out in retaliation for the Chinese government’s ill-treatment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang. From Reuters:
The claim of responsibility is likely to alarm both the Pakistani government and China, which is a close of ally of Pakistan and has considerable investment in its south Asian neighbour.
The Chinese woman was shot on Tuesday in a market in the northwestern city of Peshawar along with a Pakistani man. Police at the time said they did not know the motive.
“Our comrades carried out the attack in Peshawar which killed the Chinese tourist,” Mohammed Afridi, a spokesman for a faction of the Pakistani Taliban from the Darra Adam Khel area, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“This was revenge for the Chinese government killing our Muslim brothers in their Xinjiang province.”
In recent years there have been a number of violent incidents between Uighurs and Hans in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China. Most recently, a riot in Yecheng, Xinjiang left up to 20 dead. Read more about Uighurs and Xinjiang via CDT.
