A shocking incident has came to light from China's Xinjiang, as a goldsmith from the region's ethnic minority population died 20 days after being released from President Xi Jining's detention camp, followed by the death of his 20-year-old son the next day at his funeral.
Chinese government officials confirmed the incident, as per a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report.
Yaqup Hesen, 43, was released from prison in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) in April and died on May 1. The following day, Bilal Yaqup, died while carrying his father's casket at the businessman's funeral, the media report said citing a social media post.
Despite China's severe restrictions on online information, reports of the deaths of Uyghurs detained in prisons and internment camps in Xinjiang have continued to circulate on Facebook and other social media platforms.
Several videos and photos posted are of deceased Uyghurs who are under the age of 50 and had lost a significant amount of weight during their incarceration.
The RFA report cited a resident from the neighbourhood committee in the area of Ghulja where Hesen lived as saying that many Uyghurs had died after being released from area prisons and camps.
"There are many. I don't know all their detailed identities," she said, Radio Free Asia reported.
Another Uyghur from Ghulja who now lives abroad but requested anonymity for safety reasons, said municipal police, state security forces and a group of Chinese government officials from the Xinjiang attended Hesen's funeral, RFA reported.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday defended his government's record over the abuse of ethinic minorities including Uyghur during a video call with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
The virtual meeting of the Chinese President with the UN rights chief comes after the recent leak of a cache of photos and documents detailing abuses against Uyghur detainment in China's Xinjiang region.
A trove of files obtained by hacking into China's Xinjiang police computers contains first-ever image material from inside camps that "implicates top leadership" and has camp security instructions that describe heavily armed strike units with battlefield assault rifles, according to a Washington-based researcher.
Adrian Zenz, Director and Senior Fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, said that the material was unprecedented at several levels.
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.
( With inputs from ANI )
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