Introduction

Though Eastern Turkestan movements during the first half of the 20th century, especially the second Eastern Turkestan movement in early 1940, had representation of all minority groups of Xinjiang, the current pro-independence movements in the region and other parts of the world are exclusively a Uyghur affair. Incorporation of the region within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 and subsequent development restricted activities of the pro-independence forces in the region. The separatist demands by the Uyghur practically remained dormant until China embarked on the path of economic reform in the late 1970s. In a comparatively open political atmosphere in the 1980s, the Uyghur and other ethnic groups began to raise their demands and mostly carried out peaceful protests against government policies, which took a violent turn in the 1990s. Since that time, Xinjiang experienced a low-key separatist violence and stringent strike hard measures. A sharp departure from accommodative policies of the 1980s, coercive measures of maintaining stability by any means and incessant struggle against terrorism, however, did not allow peace to settle in the region. The Urumqi riots on 5 July 2009 and subsequent attacks by the Uyghur forces indicate escalation of separatist violence in the region.