Indian media reports that the Afghan National Security Agency recently busted a Chinese spy cell and arrested 10 Chinese; China’s links with terrorist groups such as the Taliban and its manipulation of terrorist activities have come to light. Afghanistan demands an apology from Beijing or criminal proceedings will be initiated.
The Hindustan Times (25) reported that according to Afghan diplomats and security officials, the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) busted a Chinese spy cell in the capital Kabul on October 10, and 10 Chinese nationals were arrested and detained one after another on suspicion of espionage and operating terrorist organizations.
The Chinese spy cell in Afghanistan is believed to be linked to the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
A high-ranking diplomat in Kabul said this is the first time Chinese nationals have been arrested for spying in Afghanistan. At least two of the 10 Chinese arrested maintained ties to the Haqqani network, a terrorist group that is a major force behind the Taliban, an Afghan militia.
China has repeatedly denied India’s accusations that Beijing secretly supports terrorism in the past, but this bust confirms for the first time that China has ties to terrorist organizations and is suspected of supporting and manipulating terrorist activities.
An Afghan counter-terrorism official noted that investigators first arrested Chinese national Li Yangyang and recovered weapons, ammunition and ketamine from his residence.
The investigation revealed that Li Yangyang had been working for a Chinese intelligence unit since July and August, and that he had been collecting information on the activities of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Uighur groups in Kunar and Badakhshan provinces.
On the same day that Li Yang Yang was arrested, another Chinese woman, Sha Hung, who runs a restaurant in Kabul, was also arrested, and Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) agents recovered explosives and other criminal tools from Sha Hung’s residence.
Counterterrorism officials emphasized that Li Yang Yang and Sha Hung had been in contact with the Haqqani network.
The Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) has since arrested eight other Chinese nationals involved in the spy cell.
An informed diplomat in New Delhi said investigators are learning about the exact espionage activities of the Chinese spy cell and any possible links to Pakistan, which Afghan security agencies have internally concluded is trying to establish a fake Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) organization in Afghanistan and frame Uighur human rights activists through terrorist activities.
The ETIM is a group of Uighurs in Xinjiang seeking independence from the Communist Party, and Beijing has been using ETIM as a pretext to restrict the freedom of Uighurs in Xinjiang, which the U.S. only recently removed from its list of terrorist organizations.
Informed sources in Kabul and New Delhi noted that Chinese authorities have been trying to convince the government led by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to keep quiet about Uighur-related cases.
But Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who served as head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, was recently authorized by the president to brief Chinese Ambassador Wang Yu in Kabul on the status of the 10 Chinese detainees, demanding that Beijing formally apologize and admit to violating international norms and betraying Kabul’s trust, and that the Afghan government consider pardoning the 10 Chinese spies, or else criminal proceedings would continue.
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