Name Mutallip Hajim | Died 2008 | |
Mutallip Hajim (died 2008) was a prominent Uyghur businessman from Xinjiang province in China who died while in police custody.
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Life
Hajim was a wealthy Uyghur jade trader and philanthropist. In January 2008 Hajim was taken into custody by police in Hotan. On 3 March 2008 Hajim’s body was returned to his family. Police instructed his family to bury him immediately and inform no one of his death. Hajim was thirty-eight at the time of his death.
Xinjiang protests March 2008
On 23 March 2008-24 March 2008 as many as one thousand people in Hotan and Karakax County took to the streets in protest. The protests coincided with unrest in Tibet, but the motivations appeared to be local. One issue that reportedly brought locals to the streets in protest was a government ban on women wearing headscarfs. Another issue was the death of Mutallip Hajim. Alim Seytoff, head of the World Uyghur Congress, stated that, "The Uighurs began protesting after the killing of Mutallip Hajim, who had died in police custody." This claim was echoed by unnamed sources in a Radio Free Asia report. Local police and the government run religious affairs department refused to comment on Hajim's death when contacted by Agence France-Presse.