This time, China is at risk of terrorist attacks!

The Dhaka Times Desk This time, China is at risk of terrorist attacks. Internationally, China has not been seen in that way for a long time due to the invasion of the local Uyghur group.

However, recent incidents have raised questions about the country's security. It is believed that China is also at risk of terrorist attacks at present.

According to media reports, the country's paramilitary forces killed at least 28 suspects last November in a raid on an alleged terrorist attack at a coal mine in China's Xinjiang province. China suspects that the country's Uyghur community is involved in this incident.

The Chinese government believes that the Uyghurs are no different from the militant groups Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS). But the views of human rights activists, repressive religious policies and economic marginalization are driving the situation in Xinjiang to a more chaotic environment. China's resource-rich western region of Xinjiang is home to the minority Uyghur Muslim community. The province is ethnically divided.

Beijing has long complained that the world is showing double standards on the Uyghur issue. Because in the case of terrorist attacks in other countries, sympathy is shown, it never happens in China.

Last Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told CNN that while violence in other countries is seen as terrorism, ethnic and religious issues are dragged into China's case. While anti-terror laws are supported in other countries, they are never done in China. This matter is considered by the outside world as persecution of the so-called ethnic minorities.

According to a CNN report, after the terrorist attack in Paris on November 13, China wants the support of the international community in the fight against terrorists in Xinjiang province.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Reuters that China is a victim of terrorism. The international fight against the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) needs to be intensified.

Beijing has been claiming that the ETIM group is behind the violence in China. The organization was blacklisted by the US State Department after the attack on the Twin Towers. Still, security analysts are reluctant to see ETIM in the same vein as Al Qaeda or ISIS.

Small clans and individual violence are believed to be more prevalent around Xinjiang than organized militant groups. Because accurate information of this region is not available. This is because the Chinese government strictly monitors the entry of journalists and non-governmental organization workers into the province.

Sophie Richardson, China director of human rights organization Human Rights Watch, said that there is considerable skepticism about Beijing's strategy and intentions in the death toll in China's anti-terrorist operations. If China does not want to hide anything, then UN experts, journalists, diplomatic and other observers should be allowed free access to the region. Then the real picture of that region will emerge in public.

According to a report by China's state tabloid The Global Times about the current situation, 300 Chinese citizens fought in Syria and Iraq for ISIS in 2014. If they return to China, they may pose a threat to national security. All in all, China is at risk of terrorist attacks.