A project tracking drone
deaths in Pakistan

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Tuersun Toheti

Gender

Male

Tribe

Unknown

Age

37

Nationality

Chinese

Place of origin

Unknown

Reported status

Alleged militant

Militant affiliation

Turkistan Islamic Party

Rank

Senior


Case study

Tuersun Toheti was a Chinese national and alleged ‘key militant’ with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). He was killed in a drone strike in the tribal area of Pakistan on 24 August 2012.

Toheti was born in 1975 in the Xinjiang region of China, near to the Afghanistan-Pakistan borders. He completed senior high school education in China, and was a university graduate. Toheti allegedly left China and joined the ETIM in 1999, undergoing training in terrorism.

He is alleged to have worked for ETIM in Central and West Asia, reporting to Abu Khaled Saifallah and Memetituersun Abuduhalike. The Chinese Government charged Toheti with a number of terrorist offences in 2008. These included: participation in a terrorist organisation and implementing terrorist activities. He was alleged to be one of eight militants involved in planning, and constructing bombs for a terrorist attack at the Beijing Olympics.

On 24 August 2012 Toheti was reportedly killed in a drone strike on a camp in the Shawal Mountains, Pakistan.

Picture: Tuersun Toheti bottom right – AP Photo/China’s Public Security Ministry

Sources and Citations

Bureau researcher, citing Pakistan intelligence and Taliban sources (Bureau); Pakistani officials and intelligence officials (Pakistan Today);

References

Died 24/08/2012

Details of the strike

About the project

CIA drone strikes have killed over 2,500 people in Pakistan; many are described as militants, but some are civilians. This is a record of those who have died in these attacks.

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Covert drone war

A project by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism tracking drone strikes and other covert US actions in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

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The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

The Bureau is a not-for-profit research organisation based in London. It pursues in-depth journalism that is of public benefit.

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