(Almaty — February 4, 2026) For Ulzhalgas Alimnur, any news about her father, Alimnur Turganbay, is always accompanied by chilling fear and shattered hope.
In a video released this week, Ulzhalgas revealed the latest developments concerning the case of truck driver Alimnur Turganbay. On December 15 last year, Alimnur Turganbay was allowed a rare meeting with family members at a detention center in Yining City, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. At the time, in a state of extreme anxiety, he left what sounded like a final warning to his brother and mother, both Chinese citizens:
“I do not know where they will take me, but I know they will definitely take me somewhere else.”
The case once again highlights China’s complex control measures targeting cross-border ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region. According to his family, Alimnur Turganbay had long completed the cancellation process of his Chinese passport and household registration and had legally naturalized as a citizen of Kazakhstan. However, Chinese authorities detained him on the grounds of “dual nationality,” an explanation that has become a common tactic used against ethnic Kazakhs returning to China in the Xinjiang border region.
Subsequent developments have been even more ironic. Chinese police recently called Alimnur Turganbay’s brother and confirmed that he has been transferred to a prison in Xinyuan County, Ili Prefecture. The police not only demanded that the family surrender his Chinese identity card, which he no longer possessed, and also ordered his brother to obtain a special bank card and make monthly remittances to cover Alimnur Turganbay’s food expenses in prison.
“I demand the immediate and unconditional release of my father, and an end to the pressure and persecution imposed on his relatives,” Ulzhalgas stated firmly in the video.
As for the motives behind Turganbay’s arrest, accounts vary, but all seem to point towards China’s zero-tolerance policy toward religious activities and overseas advocacy.
Serikzhan Bilash, founder of the unregistered human rights organization Atajurt, noted that local authorities had told the family that Alimnur Turganbay was arrested because he had participated in religious activities many years ago, and records of his donations appeared in the ledger of an imam who was later detained.
Another view holds that this is political retaliation. In 2019, Alimnur Turganbay recorded a video in Almaty voicing support for his nephew, Akbar Alipbay, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Beijing often regards such actions of publicly exposing the situation in Xinjiang overseas as a challenge to national security.
Alimnur Turganbay’s case has sparked intense social unrest in Kazakhstan. Previously, members of Atajurt burned the Chinese national flag and a portrait of Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a protest against China’s arbitrary detention of Kazakhstan’s citizen Alimnur Turganbay. This act enraged Beijing, which subsequently exerted intense diplomatic pressure on Kazakhstan’s government.
The pressure quickly translated into legal action within Kazakhstan. Subsequently, 19 activists were arrested and now face prosecution. According to individuals familiar with the situation, Kazakhstan’s judicial authorities are handling the case in closed-door proceedings, speaking to supporters individually, and applying pressure on them.
This phenomenon reflects a deeply troubling trend: Central Asian states are finding it increasingly challenging to balance economic dependence with the protection of human rights. For families who move across borders in search of a home between two countries, nationality is no longer an umbrella of protection, but rather a political trap that can spring at any moment.
