China denies accusations of repression of minorities and blames separatist Uighur militants for provoking violence in Xinjiang.

According to Afghan Taliban sources, there are about 250 Uighur militants in Afghanistan's Nuristan and Kunar provinces.

He added that Uighur militants were not fond of guns, and resorted mostly to knives and daggers.

Until recently they controlled territory along Pakistan's north-western border with Afghanistan, and hosted the largest concentration of Uighur militants outside China.

Beijing says it faces Islamist insurgency in Xinjiang, and blames Uighur militants for a number of knife and bomb attacks across the country.

Uighur militants have been agitating to establish an independent East Turkestan in China's predominantly Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Military sources said a number of ethnic Uighur militants, who operate alongside Uzbeks and share a similar Turkic language with them, have also been killed.

Military sources said a number of ethnic Uighur militants, who operate alongside Uzbeks and share a similar Turkic language with them, had also been killed.

Rehman Malik, Pakistan's former interior minister, said that about 20 Uighur militants were captured and handed over to China on his watch in 2008-2013.