written by Javed Aziz Khan
Friday March 23, 2012
PESHAWAR – Jiang Hua was a visitor to Pakistan, and if official records are any indication, she must have loved the country, because she extended her stay.
Unfortunately, Jiang’s love of Pakistan proved deadly. Jiang, a 40-year-old native of China, was shot to death February 28 along with her guide, apparently by militants who accuse China of killing Muslims.
Now, Pakistanis are concerned about what the slaying bodes for the future.
Jiang arrived in Pakistan October 30 and had spent most of her time in Lahore, where she rented a room in a hostel, travel records show.
“Jiang had extended her Pakistani visa in November last year after deciding to prolong her stay in the country, which was valid to April 4. The slain woman had the visas of Nepal, Cambodia and Sri Lanka on her passport,” said Umar Riaz, the senior superintendent of police (SSP) for Investigation Peshawar.
Jiang, a student at Beijing University, came to Peshawar February 26 and was staying with another Chinese girl at a motel in the cantonment area.
Police are investigating a claim by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that the militant group killed Jiang, who was shot from behind while walking along the road after visiting the Rahman Baba shrine in the Peshawar suburbs, Umar said. Police suspect she had been followed for a while before her slaying.
“A team of investigators was sent to Lahore to find any clue that can lead the officials to arrest her killers,” Umar said. “The police have also quizzed the people who had met Jiang Hua in Peshawar.”
Jiang was with a local tour guide, Suleman Shams, who also was killed. Suleman, was a Government College University student and a national-level track-and-field athlete.
“I had told my son not to stay for long with the foreign lady due to the law-and-order situation in the city,” said Shamsul Arifeen, Suleman’s father.
The situation in Peshawar
In 2011, 550 murder cases covering the deaths of 603 men, 81 women, 29 children, and some 40 police officers were registered in Peshawar.
But the murders of Jiang and Suleman present a twist, authorities say. They coincided with the killings of more Muslims in Yecheng, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, where police said nine knife-wielding attackers fatally stabbed 13 civilians February 28. Police killed seven of the nine and captured the other two.
The TTP claimed responsibility for the Jiang-Suleman killings in early March, saying Jiang was shot to avenge Muslims killed by Chinese authorities.
The international implications could be profound.
Police investigators are updating the Foreign Office and the Interior Ministry daily, since Beijing has called for the killers’ speedy arrest.
The murder could cause problems to thousands of traders from both countries who travel back and forth, Pakistani traders who frequent China said.
“There used to be a number of visits of Chinese traders to Peshawar and other parts of KP … but presently they are not coming to the province,” said Abid Salam, vice president of the KP Chamber of Commerce and Industries. Now it will also affect the business of Pakistanis visiting China in connection with their business.”
Chinese people have been telling the Pakistani traders that the killing of a Chinese national concerns them, Abid said.
China is calling for action, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in early March.
"The Chinese side has urged Pakistan to arrest and punish the gunmen and take effective measures to strengthen protection of Chinese citizens," Hong said, according to media reports.
China’s theory
Chinese authorities blamed Islamic extremists for an attack in Kashgar, China, during Ramadan that claimed 11 lives last August. It came within 24 hours of two small blasts that ripped through the town.
Some media reported that a Xinjiang police official claimed the culprits in the assault received training at a Pakistani camp run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a group formed in 1993 whose objective is the independence of East Turkestan – a name variously used to refer to all or part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
That media claim, however, could never be verified officially.
Now China is once again raising the spectre of Islamic militancy in the region.
"I don't think the Chinese woman killing has anything to do with the East Turkmenistan Islamic Movement or any foreign group,” Umar said. “There are some leads that it was done by a local group, though nothing can be concluded at this stage.”
Regardless of what the inquiry finds, “We are making all efforts to provide security to Chinese and other foreigners,” Umar told Central Asia Online.
Heavy contingents of police and security forces guard diplomatic missions and offices of foreign bodies and of NGOs, for example. And the KP Home and Tribal Affairs Department recently asked the federal government to shift all the diplomatic missions and offices of the international organisations to a more secure diplomatic enclave.
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