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China charges 17 with gun running
 BEIJING: Seventeen Chinese have been charged with running guns from Pakistan in one of the largest arms-smuggling cases in Chinaâs history, state media said on Thursday. The defendants, who went on trial on Tuesday in the remote western province of Qinghai, neighbouring Tibet, are accused of buying more than 900 guns and 1,500 gun accessories in Pakistan, the China Daily said. They were sold in Kashgar, in Chinaâs restive far-western region of Xinjiang, and in Xining, capital of Qinghai, the China Daily reported. It was not clear whether the guns were headed for Muslim separatists in Xinjiang, who have been fighting for decades for an independent âEast Turkestanâ homeland and whom Beijing calls terrorists, or to meet demand amid a growing wave of violent crime that has come with Chinaâs economic reforms. Posted by: Fred 2005-08-26 |
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