Eset Sulaiman | Radio Free Asia
[caption id="attachment_3604" align="alignleft" width="300"] Chinese soldiers in Xianxiang Uygur autonomy area (chinadigitaltimess)[/caption]
A young ethnic Uyghur woman detained by Chinese police in February while attempting to flee the country to join her husband in Turkey has died in police custody in her native Xinjiang, according to sources in the region and in exile.
Tursungul, 32 and described as healthy before she was taken into custody, died shortly after being taken to the Shaptol Township police station in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture’s Peyziwat (Jiashi) county, a Uyghur living in Turkey told RFA’s Uyghur Service, citing sources in Xinjiang.
“She died within a week and was buried somewhere by the police,” said the man, who had successfully escaped to Turkey with Tursungul’s husband some time before.
“Authorities told her relatives that she had died suddenly due to heart failure,” he said.
Hoping to be reunited with her husband, who had gone ahead of her to Turkey, Tursungul had traveled to southern China with her 15-year-old daughter and infant son, RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They hid in one place after another, watching for an opportunity to cross the border,” he said.