The Pishan hostage crisis occurred on the night of December 28, 2011, in Koxtag (Kuoshi Tage),[1]Pishan/Guma County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. A group of 15 ethnic Uyghur youths kidnapped two goat shepherds for directions near the Indian and Pakistan borders.[2] They were soon confronted by a group of five Pishan policemen, who tried to negotiate for the shepherds' release. This led to a shootout in which a police officer and 7 hostage-takers were killed. Another police officer was injured, and 4 suspects were taken into custody.[2] Both of the hostages were rescued by police.[3]
Map including Koxtag (Ko-shih-t'a-ko[sic]) (DMA, 1984)
Pishan County is one of the poorest counties in the Xinjiang region,[1] on the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert bordering Pakistan's Azad Kashmir.[4] An oasis county, its people are predominantly cotton-growers.[5]Han Chinese account for less than 2% of the population of Pishan.[6] Residents of Pishan told Xinhua that a new spirit of extremism was damaging organized Uyghur life.[7] Earlier in the month, religious extremists kidnapped and murdered a Uyghur man for drinking alcohol, which is prohibited in Islam.[8] Store-owners in Pishan who sell alcoholic drinks and cigarettes said that they feared retaliation by extremists.[7]
The ethnic Uyghur-dominated southern part of Xinjiang has witnessed increasing separatist violence by ethnic Uyghur militants who want to establish an independent state.[1] On April 18 and 21, there were two fatal incidents of Uyghurs stabbing Han Chinese in the city of Kashgar.[4] In July, a group of militants seized a police station, took hostages, and battled police in a standoff that would ultimately end in 18 deaths.[1] In that same month, a group of militants trained in Pakistan killed 14 people in attacks in Kashgar.[4]
According to Global Times,the group of terror suspects had been trying to cross into Central Asia to receive jihadist training when they lost their way near Pishan.[9][6] Around 11 pm (1500 GMT) on December 28,they kidnapped two Uyghur goat shepherds in the town of Kuoshi Tage (Qoshtagh)[1] and forced the shepherds to act as their guides.[10] The kidnapping was witnessed by several workers at the Kuoshi Tage agricultural cooperative.[1] At the border village of Mokoyla[zh],the shepherds alerted local police to the group's intentions.[6] Five police officers,led by Pishan deputy police chief Adil Abduveli,tried to persuade the party to abandon their plans,while negotiating for the shepherds' release.[11] The party instead argued with the police,and when Abduveli touched one of the men's wives,[12][2] the kidnappers shot at them,[2] killing Abdulveli and injuring another police officer.[4][13] According to local residents,the remaining police officers returned fire,killing seven kidnappers and detaining four,who are charged with resisting arrest.[13] The two hostages were freed,[14] unharmed.[1] The government did not announce the ethnicity of the kidnappers,except to say that they were ethnic minorities;[6] Pishan residents interviewed by Radio Free Asia (RFA) confirmed that they were Uyghurs.[11] The village chief of one of the Mokoyla[zh]hamlets unofficially claimed to identify two of the seven shot as Ablikim Abduqadir and Hebibulla Abduqadir. Hebibulla Abduqadir had taken a class taken three months prior in Artux which was considered an illegal religious activity.[12]
Reactions
World Uyghur Congress spokesperson Dilxadi Rexiti (迪里夏提,also known as Dilxat Raxit) said on December 29 that the hostage-takers were "angry" that police had searched private homes for Islamic extremist material,explaining the police attack as a matter of "the local Uighur people [not being able to] take the pressure anymore."[5] Rexiti also questioned the death toll,claiming that his "sources" reported deaths of nine or ten among the kidnappers,not seven.[4] On the other hand,Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin said that the kidnappers were "violent terrorists".[6] No more details on the kidnappers have been released as the police are investigating the incident.[15] On December 31,CPC party chief of Xinjiang Zhang Chunxian pledged to "safeguard regional stability" and to enlist the Xinjiang public in the fight against "foreign religious infiltration" and "organized terrorist attacks".[1]
1 2 3 4 5 Wong, Edward (2011-12-30). "Reports Describe Deadly Shootout in Restive Region of China". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2011-12-31. Retrieved 2011-12-30. A spokesman for Xinjiang's foreign affairs office declined to comment when reached by telephone. He said more details were available in an article printed Friday in Global Times, a state-owned newspaper. The article provided a complicated narrative of the events, with elements rarely seen in China, even in the troubled Xinjiang region. It cited a local official as saying that a group of 15 men had been trying to cross into Central Asia to receive "jihadist training" when they lost their way near Pishan.
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![Map including Koxtag (Ko-shih-t'a-ko [sic]) (DMA, 1984) Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 g-7a.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566_g-7a.jpg/250px-Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566_g-7a.jpg)
