‘Uighurs will be sent back’

Meeting the nation’s future: Dr Ahmad Zahid and wife Datin Seri Hamidah Khamis (red scarf) having a chat with the students at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia in Batu Pahat, Johor.

BATU PAHAT: Kuala Lumpur will honour its agreement with Beijing to extradite 11 Uighur Muslims wanted by China.

However, the Uighurs, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, would be sent back to China only after the conclusion of police investiga-tion.

“Malaysian police is conducting investigation to gather intelligence, especially to check whether any of them is involved in the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

“Other countries do not need to worry about the Malaysian Govern­ment’s decision over the matter,” he told reporters after a session with new students at Uni­versiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia here yesterday.

On Friday, Reuters reported that the United States had expressed concern over the deportation of the Uighurs who had escaped from Thailand.

The group had broken out of a detention centre near the Malaysia-Thai border in November after digging holes in the wall and using blankets as ladders.

Dr Ahmad Zahid, who is also the Home Minister, said Malaysian police had been in contact with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the extradition process.

“Our decision to extradite is based on agreements signed with China, including the Mutual Legal Assistance and the extradition treaty.

“We have to honour the agreements as Malaysia has also extradited our countrymen, who were involved in credit cards falsifying syndicates and other criminal activities in the republic,” he said.