Prospective Muslim pilgrims in China\u2019s western Xinjiang region typically endure long waits to get on state-organized trips to Mecca. Helping them jump the line, though, could mean landing in hot water.<\/p>\n
5:32 pm HKT Jan 15, 2015<\/p>\n
Prospective Muslim pilgrims in China\u2019s western Xinjiang region typically endure long waits to get on state-organized trips to Mecca. Helping them jump the line, though, could mean landing in hot water.<\/p>\n
Some 32 Xinjiang officials are being punished for wrongdoing related to their handling of government-organized pilgrimages, the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s official news portal said Thursday, after investigators uncovered \u201cserious violations of political discipline, abuse of power, dereliction of duty, use of power for personal gain and power-for-money deals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Party news portal didn\u2019t give details on the alleged wrongdoing, but a Thursday report by the state-run China Daily said the officials, mostly from Kizilsu prefecture, were investigated for \u201carranging pilgrimages for unqualified people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The newspaper didn\u2019t define what it meant by \u201cunqualified,\u201d though it said some of the 32 officials \u201cabused their power by changing the [pilgrimage waiting] list to cut waiting time for relatives.\u201d Others were \u201cfound to have asked for and received bribes or neglected the inspection and management of pilgrimage work,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Xinjiang is home to a large population of Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking and mainly Muslim ethnic group. The border region, which abuts Central Asia, has also been the site of simmering ethnic tensions between Uighurs and China\u2019s majority Han Chinese, laced with religious, political and economic overtones.<\/p>\n
Regional authorities organize pilgrimages each year for Muslim Uighurs, though the waiting list for such trips are long, China Daily said. More than 14,000 Chinese pilgrims visited Mecca on a government-organized trip last year, the newspaper added.<\/p>\n
Six of the officials were removed from their posts, expelled from the Communist Party and face further punishment via the criminal justice system, the party\u2019s news portal said.<\/p>\n
They include Aniwar Turdi, former director of the pilgrimage affairs office under the Xinjiang Ethnic Affairs Committee, as well as the head of Kizilsu\u2019s public-security bureau and the mayor of Artux, the prefectural capital.<\/p>\n
The case against these six officials first surfaced last year, when Xinjiang\u2019s Communist Party committee said in a Oct. 11 notice that authorities were investigating them over \u201cserious\u201d disciplinary violations, such as abusing their power to interfere in the pilgrimage-application process and taking bribes, as well as dereliction of duty related to pilgrimage-management work.<\/p>\n
The remaining 26 officials were slapped with punishments ranging from removal from their administrative and party positions, as well as censures and warnings, it added.<\/p>\n
None of the 32 officials could be reached to comment. It wasn\u2019t clear if the six officials facing criminal punishment had legal representation.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Chun Han Wong. Follow him on Twitter @ByChunHan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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