China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan hold joint anti-terror drill

Security forces from China, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikstan held joint counter-terrorism drills along the Chinese border in the western region of Xinjiang, AP reported. The government and state-owned media said that the exercises were designed to simulate a coordinated manhunt for Uighur separatists who had set up a training camp on the Chinese side of the border. When flushed out of their camp, the separatists hijacked a tourist bus. Chinese television showed black-suited troops storming the bus. The drill was the second in five years conducted under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a body which includes China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. Last week Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan prevented Uighur activists from attending a gathering of Uighurs in Washington, DC, saying it would “harm Sino-Kyrgyz relations.”