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THE STANS
Pakistan to hold fresh talks with Taliban negotiators
by Staff Writers
Islamabad (AFP) April 18, 2014


China Xinjiang teen dies after police clash: report
Beijing (AFP) April 17, 2014 - A teenager in China's Xinjiang has died after speeding past police checkpoints and clashing with officers, state media said Thursday, in the latest violence to hit the restive far-western region.

The vast area has seen periodic violence between authorities and the mainly Muslim Uighur minority that is concentrated there, with several incidents this year in Aksu prefecture where the latest incident occurred.

Seventeen-year-old Abdul Basiti Abdulimiti "was riding a motorcycle and rushed through two consecutive security checkpoints" on Saturday, said a report by the Tianshan web portal run by the Xinjiang government.

An officer "fired warning shots into the air", after which Abdulimiti "assailed the officer and seized his firearm", it said, citing Aksu police.

"After being wounded Abdulimiti was sent to hospital, where he died in the early hours of the next morning after rescue efforts were unsuccessful," the report said, without specifying how the teenager was injured.

The US-funded Radio Free Asia, citing local residents, said police killed the teenager and wounded two of his passengers after they ran a red light, prompting protests.

The Uyghur American Association condemned the incident as "extrajudicial".

Overseas campaign groups say unrest in Xinjiang is driven by cultural oppression, intrusive security measures and massive immigration by Han Chinese.

But authorities routinely label such incidents as "terrorism" and argue that China faces a violent separatist movement in the area motivated by religious extremism and linked to radical overseas groups.

Mentions of "Aksu 17 year old" had been deleted from China's popular Twitter-like site Sina Weibo as of Thursday.

Meanwhile authorities on Wednesday detained a resident of Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi for 15 days for retweeting "rumours" about the incident, Tianshan said.

"Hostile foreign forces maliciously distorted the facts, fabricating rumours about a 'shooting after running a red light' in order to manipulate public opinion," it said.

Aksu -- in Xinjiang's far west near the border with Kyrgyzstan -- was the scene of triple explosions in January that killed at least three people, with police shooting dead six people soon afterwards.

The next month 11 people in Aksu were killed in an incident that police called a "terror attack".

The Pakistani government is planning a fresh round of talks with Taliban negotiators at the weekend, officials said Friday, despite the militants' refusal to extend a ceasefire called to help peace efforts.

Talks to end the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) bloody seven-year insurgency have been under way since February, with little clear progress made so far.

On Wednesday the militants said they would not extend the ceasefire they began on March 1 to help talks, complaining of a lack of movement from the government side.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in a statement that he has called a meeting with the TTP's talks committee to decide how to proceed.

He said only dialogue could overcome reservations and objections, but warned there was little chance of progress without a ceasefire.

"If Taliban have certain objections, we also have reservations," he said, adding the government pushed forward the peace process against serious logjams.

"(But) I don't think the talks process will move forward in the absence of a ceasefire," said Khan, who has been an ardent supporter of the talks.

He will meet the TTP's three-man talks committee, led by Maulana Sami-ul-Haq.

Members of the government negotiating team are also likely to attend Saturday's talks, a senior official told AFP.

In the country's restive northwest, which has borne the brunt of the violence of the last seven years, militants opened fire on government paramilitary troops, killing one and wounding two others.

The incident, confirmed by local security and intelligence officials, took place at Bara Shaikhan village which lies on the edge of Khyber tribal district, bordering the city of Peshawar.

Since the TTP began their campaign of violence in 2007, more than 6,800 people have been killed in bomb and gun attacks around Pakistan, according to an AFP tally, destabilising the nuclear-armed state.

The umbrella militant group has demanded the release of what they call "non-combatant" prisoners and the establishment of a "peace zone" where security forces would not be present.

The government freed 19 tribesmen last week and on Sunday Khan said 13 more of what he called "non-combatant Taliban" prisoners would be released to help the peace process.

Talks were a key campaign pledge for Sharif before he was elected to office for a third time last year, but some observers have cast doubt on their chances of success.

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