International terrorist organizations are subverting traditional practices and forcing people from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to fight in a worldwide jihad, before sending them home to carry out more attacks, as Cui Jia reports from Urumqi and He Na from Nanning, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Meturdi Iminiaz, from the city of Hotan in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, simply couldn't shake the image of a member of an overseas terrorist cell forcing a small boy to fire a pistol. "I can't believe anyone would put their children through such a thing. Those children will be scared for life," the mother of two said.

She had just watched video clips filmed by Xinjiang natives who had smuggled themselves and even their families across the border to join international terrorist groups and carry out a "holy war".

The clips were shown in a documentary that recently aired on Xinjiang TV and included rare footage of children being groomed to become killing machines. The program also contained interviews with suspected terrorists from Xinjiang who had been detained overseas and then deported back to China.

The 6-year-old boy in the video eventually pulled the trigger with the assistance of his father Azat Rozahong. The clips, filmed at a terrorist training camp near China's border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, showed the bullet hitting a tree. The footage was filmed by the boy's mother.

"I didn't feel a thing at the time. When I look back now, it's painful to see my children suffering," Azat Rozahong said in the documentary. He and his wife are now being held at a detention center in Xinjiang.

'Migration'

The road along which Azat led his wife and children is called yijilate, which means "migration" in the Uygur language. The concept has been transformed into a movement by religious extremists who urge people to leave their homes and carry out holy war overseas.

"Many terrorist organizations use the concept of yijilate to recruit people from other countries to fight for them. They have established human-trafficking chains to help people to leave their home countries illegally," said Yang Shu, director of the Central Asia Studies Center at Lanzhou University in Gansu province, who studies international terrorism.

The yijilate movement began to penetrate Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim region, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it wasn't until 1996 that the authorities noticed a surge in the number of people crossing the border illegally to join international terrorist groups, he said.

According to the Xinjiang police, 90 percent of terrorist attacks carried out in the region are connected with yijilate or are conducted by terrorist cells to promote the notion that people should carry out attacks at home if they are unable to leave the country.

Some of the cells in Xinjiang are run by terrorists who trained overseas before returning to wage war in their own country. In March, Zhang Chunxian, Xinjiang's top official, said some local residents have crossed the border illegally to join the Islamic State, or ISIS, the terrorist organization that has seized large areas of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq and declared a caliphate. Zhang added that the Xinjiang authorities had also destroyed a terrorist cell run by returnees who had fought with ISIS.

A global threat

On March 1 last year, a group from Xinjiang used knives to randomly attack members of the public at a railway station in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. The attack left 31 people dead and 141 injured. The police investigation found that the group originally planned to cross the border in Yunnan illegally and carry out a holy war overseas. However, the plan was changed after the group's members were ordered to carry out the attack in Kunming if they were unable to leave the country.

On June 29, 2012, six men carrying sharpened metal crutches and concealed explosives attempted to hijack Tianjin Airlines Flight GS7554, which was en route to Urumqi, the regional capital, shortly after the plane took off from Hotan airport in the south of Xinjiang.

The yijilate movement has grown and mushroomed in recent years, mainly thanks to its clever use of the Internet, and its activities have become more pronounced. A growing number of people are now willing to sell their homes and give up everything to travel abroad, according to Yang. "The authorities must be prepared to deal with the situation," he said.

Li Wei, who conducts research into anti-terrorism studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said yijilate is not unique to China, and it poses a global threat. "In 2014, the UN urged member countries to step up efforts to prevent their residents from participating in terrorist activities overseas," he said.

The Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has long inland and maritime borders, which have resulted in the region becoming one of the major routes used by extremists who cross the border illegally.

"Guangxi has attached great importance to counterterrorism and illegal border crossings. In recent years, we have established multilevel, multichannel security cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, especially Vietnam and Cambodia," said Peng Shunke, director of the International Cooperation Division of the Public Security Department in Guangxi.

Promises of a better life

In the past year, the Guangxi police have assisted neighboring countries with investigations into 103 transnational crimes, and border control offices in other ASEAN countries have helped Guangxi with 101 cases.

"People associated with cross-border terrorism are prone to violence and are also very cunning," Peng said. "We have instigated numerous measures, including counterterrorism training, to improve border controls with neighboring countries. We also share our experiences by exchanging information about suspected terrorists, and arresting and repatriating people involved in terrorism."

He called on the countries involved to provide their neighbors with as much help as possible, within the scope of the law, to deal with terrorism and other transnational crimes. He also urged greater coordination of inquiries and wider notification of activities related to terrorism.

International terrorist groups use the promise of a better life to lure Xinjiang people, especially the young, to travel overseas. The promise usually has a deadly sting in its tail, though.

Mardan Maolahong, a former member of an overseas terrorist cell, lost his lower right leg during combat.

Before he joined a terrorist cell, Mardan was an ambitious businessman in Xinjiang. "I was interested in the fashion industry and wanted to set up my own brand featuring traditional Uygur designs. I hoped that one day I would even export them to Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan," he said during an interview with Xinjiang TV, filmed at a detention center in the region.

However, just as he was starting his business, an uncle called from overseas and asked Mardan to join him, saying he knew a good place to study religion and the tuition was free.

As a talented linguist, Mardan was excited by the idea of learning a new language, which could prove useful when conducting business, and was also eager to learn more about Islam, so he quickly joined his uncle, with whom he had always been close.

Mardan didn't name the country he went to, but said that when he arrived at the "school", which was really a terrorist training camp, he was immediately alarmed.

"The living conditions there were even worse than in the average village in Xinjiang. We went to markets where everyone was armed, and I didn't feel safe at all. Sometimes people even started fighting among themselves at the market," he said.

The strong disparity between what he had imagined and reality made Mardan want to leave, but his uncle and other members of the cell forced him to stay. He eventually joined the group after being brainwashed for more than 10 days.

During the time he spent with the cell, Mardan's lower right leg had to be amputated, and his uncle was killed by the local army.

He was also forced to marry the widow of a cell member who had been killed in combat. Mardan said he always wanted to marry for love, but that became impossible when he joined the cell.

After the amputation, Mardan was given a highly classified job as a member of the cell's publicity department, tasked with helping to make recruitment videos.

According to the Xinjiang police, almost all the violent attacks in the region have been carried out by people who have watched violent, terrorist videos, many of which were produced by the cell to which Mardan belonged.

"I shot a lot of video footage, but those in charge never showed us the full, edited versions because assistants don't have clearance for the videos," Mardan said.

Fact vs fiction

The videos always showed well-equipped cell members, but the reality was very different. "That footage was staged. We bought camouflage uniforms at the local markets and asked cell members to wear them solely for the purposes of the video," he said.

According to Mardan, the cell rarely carried out its activities during daylight hours for fear of being targeted by anti-terrorist units, and the "achievements" featured in the videos were greatly exaggerated. Some of the footage was simply downloaded from sites on the Internet.

"For example, the videos claimed we took over a prison or liberated some place, but nothing like that actually happened. We only said those things to lure other people from Xinjiang to join us," he said.

"Many people joined us between 2012 and 2013 because they watched the videos," he said. "After a while, though, most of them regretted their actions because the reality was so different from what they'd seen in the videos."

Last year, Mardan escaped from the cell. He didn't provide details in the interview, but said he is truly repentant.

"I didn't know the difference between right and wrong until it was too late. I wasted the best years of my life in a terrorist cell when I could have been doing something truly meaningful," he said.

Contact the writers at cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn and hena@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 06/26/2015 page5)