Ablimit Ghojabdulla was born in April 1974 in Qaraqash, Hotan prefecture, and served as a teacher at the No. 4 high school in Qaraqash county. In July 2013, he was arrested and subsequently sentenced to five years imprisonment on January 27, 2014, on charges of separatism. Following his five-year prison term, he was transferred to a camp in July 2018.
Although Ablimit Ghojabdulla is an online writer, his works have not been published in the state-owned Uyghur public press, nor have they been featured in the official journals or websites of the Uygur Autonomous Region Writers Association. Moreover, his works have not received endorsement from any or any literary magazine for the government-run Khantangri Literary Award or Tulpar Literary Award. Nevertheless, he remains a popular and widely read blogger in the Uyghur web world, with his series of satirical pieces titled “Tokhti Pokan Story Collection” garnering over 50,000 views within a few weeks of being posted on Bagdax and Misranim (the owners were arrested and sentenced also), among other websites.
Ablimit Ghojabdulla’s novel “Dark Land”, which he self-published online as an e-book in 2013, also gained widespread acclaim among Uyghur readers. However, his online persona, “Sheikh”(xayhim), was banned from Uyghur websites on June 6, 2013, at 15:59 pm, after which his name disappeared from Uyghur websites.
Abduwali Ayup, a Uyghur intellectual confirmed that he met with Ablimit Ghojabdulla in Qaraqash in May 2013, a few months before his arrest. After Abduwali Ayub’s release from prison in early 2015, he learned from credible sources that Ablimit Ghojabdulla had been arrested in 2013 by Hotan national security on July 3rd. Although he was slated for release in 2018, his transfer to a camp from prison has left his current situation unknown.
These are the links about his works found on the internet:
“Dark land”, alternative link, alternative link, alternative link, alternative link, alternative link, alternative link, alternative link
“Tokhti Pokan Story Collection”, alternative link, alternative link, alternative link, alternative link
