Indian Uyghur Society Marks East Turkistan National Day of Mourning: 76th Anniversary of China’s Invasion of East Turkistan

12 October 2025
Press Release – For Immediate Release
Indian Uyghur Society (IUS)
IndiaUyghur.org
indianuyghursociety@gmail.com

SRINAGAR — The Indian Uyghur Society (IUS) solemnly observes 12 October 2025 as the 76th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China’s invasion of the sovereign Republic of East Turkistan, a day remembered by East Turkistanis worldwide as a National Day of Mourning. On 12 October 1949, just days after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese Communist forces launched a military assault on an independent East Turkistan, culminating in the forcible overthrow of the East Turkistan Republic on 22 December 1949.

This invasion marked the beginning of a brutal campaign of occupation, colonization, and systematic repression whose consequences continue to this day. Under Chinese rule, millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples have been killed or disappeared, while countless others have endured mass internment, forced labor, torture, executions, forced sterilizations, and the deliberate destruction of their religious, cultural, and national identity.

“On this day of mourning, we remember all those who have been martyred, imprisoned, or silenced under China’s occupation of East Turkistan,” said Wasim Abdullah, President of the Indian Uyghur Society. “Seventy-six years of oppression cannot erase our people’s determination to reclaim freedom, dignity, and full independence for our homeland.”

The Indian Uyghur Society calls on governments, international organizations, and people of conscience to recognize East Turkistan as an occupied country, to hold China accountable for genocide, colonization, and crimes against humanity, and to support the East Turkistani people’s inherent right to self‑determination and the restoration of their national sovereignty. IUS reaffirms that true peace and stability in the region require a free and independent East Turkistan.