Hacked files from China Police computers show disturbing picture of mass detention in Xinjiang
Religious items confiscated by police as “illegal” include prayer rugs, Hijabs, Quranic verses
A trove of unprecedented material obtained by hacking into China’s Xinjiang Police computers has taken the internet by storm, bringing to the fore the first-ever image of material from inside camps that “implicates top leadership” and has camp security instructions that describe heavily armed strike units with battlefield assault rifles.
The files also show Religious items confiscated by police as “illegal” contraband include prayer rugs, religious texts, handwritten verses from the Quran, hijabs, long dresses, and an elementary school notebook containing Uyghur language exercises.
Adrian Zenz, the Director of China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington share the material and said that materials are unprecedented at several levels.
According to the researcher and his team, the Xinjiang Police Files contain an encrypted archive with images of several thousand persons taken in the first half of 2018 at police stations and detention centers in Konasheher County, Kashgar prefecture - a region in southern Xinjiang that is predominantly inhabited by the Uyghur people. In 2018, these regions were ordered to photograph a substantial share of the population as part of biometric data collection. Each image filename contains a timestamp and the person's government ID number.
"The files also contain about 450 spreadsheets from the region that corroborate the identity of the depicted persons. They reveal that in 2018, at least 12.1 percent of all ethnic adults in the country were in detention - including 2,884 of the photographed persons. Among them are 15 minors. The youngest detained person depicted in these images is a 15-year-old girl and the oldest is a 73-year-old woman," said the team led by Adrian Zenz who analyzed and authenticated the material.
"Some of these 2884 persons were probably photographed prior to their detention and others likely during their internment. Since these persons are victims, the full set of 2,884 images is made available on this website in the original form".
Adrian Zenz said original filenames have been truncated for privacy reasons so as to not reveal each person's full ID number.
"Vivid image of police drills, and over 5,000 images of persons taken at detention centers/police stations, 2,884 of them are interned. 4. Spreadsheets showing the vast scale of internments: over 12 percent of the adult population of Uyghur county in 2018 was shown in camps or prisons. You can view and download many of the files, documents, and nearly 2,900 images of detained persons from the #XinjiangPoliceFiles website," Adrian Zenz said in his tweets.
Human rights campaigners have accused the ruling Communist Party of China of committing widespread abuses in Xinjiang in the name of security, steps which include confining people to internment camps, forcibly separating families, and carrying out forced sterilization.
For its part, China has said these facilities are "vocational skills training centres" that are necessary to "counter" extremism and improve livelihoods. Chinese officials said in late 2019 that most "trainees" had "graduated" from the centres.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet recently visited China and Xinjiang.
The US has accused China of genocide in Xinjiang, and an unofficial and independent UK-based tribunal ruled in December 2021 that Beijing is indeed guilty of genocide.
In March 2022, nearly 200 rights groups had demanded that Bachelet's office release its long-postponed report on the rights situation in Xinjiang.
BREAKING: huge trove of files obtained by hacking into Xinjiang police / re-education camp computers contain first-ever image material from inside camps, reveal Chen Quanguo issuing shoot-to-kill orders, Xi Jinping demanding new camps because existing ones are overcrowded. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/6K19Wxf0Lx
— Adrian Zenz (@adrianzenz) May 24, 2022
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Four held for Rs 33 lakh online investment fraud; interstate racket busted
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi Police has busted an interstate cyber fraud syndicate involved in an online investment scam and arrested four persons, an official said on Saturday.
A crime branch team arrested the accused in a case where a victim was allegedly cheated of Rs 33.83 lakh on the pretext of lucrative returns through online trading platforms.
“Police said the accused lured victims with promises of high returns and later coerced them into depositing more money on the pretext of unlocking or withdrawing earlier investments,” the officer said.
Police said the racket operated across several states, including Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan, and used a network of mule bank accounts to route and layer the defrauded money to conceal its origin.
“During the investigation, the cheated amount was traced to 15 bank accounts. Thirteen of these accounts were registered outside Delhi, indicating the organised and interstate nature of the syndicate,” said the police officer.
The accused have been identified as Mohammad Khalid (26) and Atiur Rahman (23), both residents of Delhi, Ramandeep Singh (29) from Punjab, and Tanish alias Heera Ram (27) from Rajasthan.
According to the police, Khalid was arrested on March 15 and allegedly disclosed that he gave his bank account details and SIM card to a co-accused for a commission.
Rahman, who was already lodged in a jail in Haryana in a similar case, was later formally arrested. Ramandeep Singh was arrested on April 6 and allegedly admitted to sharing his account credentials for monetary gain.
Tanish was apprehended from Rajasthan on April 9 for facilitating the use of such accounts in the fraud network.
During the probe, officers analysed over 100 call detail records, IMEI data and transaction-related digital evidence to track the accused and establish the money trail.
Three mobile phones and SIM cards used in the crime have been recovered.
Further investigation is underway to identify other members of the syndicate and trace additional financial linkages, the police said.
