Who is Qembergul ?

by Abdurrahim Parach

Qembergul was born in 1961 in Yengiawat village of Peyziwat County and studied only up to the third grade of primary school. She played a decisive role in the suppression of the armed uprising against the Chinese authorities in Peyziwat on May 27, 1981 — known as the “Jigdilik Incident.”

Around 1:00 a.m. on May 27, 1981, over four hundred Uyghur youths, organized under the leadership of Hasan Ismail, launched a sudden attack on the weapons depot of the Peyziwat County People’s Armed Forces and seized all weapons and ammunition stored there. In the courtyard of the depot lived the guard, Mamut, together with his young wife Qembergul and their underage son. The attackers tied Mamut tightly to one of the pillars in the courtyard and locked the gate before leaving.

At that moment, Qembergul, who had been sleeping with her small child, got up and escaped through a loose plank in the latrine located in the courtyard. She ran several kilometers to reach the county armed forces office and reported the situation. As a result, Chinese soldiers from the county armed police unit moved to block the rebels, who had already set out to attack the county government and other related offices. Soon after, additional Chinese troops from the Southern Xinjiang Military Region in Yengi Sheher also arrived. Realizing that the situation was turning unfavorable, the rebels, led by Hasan Ismail, retreated to the forested area of Jigdilik, east of the county. Chinese troops surrounded the forest.

At dawn, at the request of the county magistrate and other officials, Yusuf Damolla — the imam of Heytgah Mosque, the central mosque of the county — went to the rebels inside the forest. He preached to them, conveyed the promises of the county magistrate and relevant officials, and urged them to surrender.

As a result, the rebels became divided over whether to surrender. Some voluntarily handed over their weapons and gave themselves up; others were forced to surrender. Thus, the uprising was suppressed without further escalation, and several hundred people under the leadership of Hasan Ismail were sentenced.

In December 1981, Qembergul was awarded the title of “First-Class Model for Meritorious Service in Public Security” by the so-called Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region People’s Government. In addition, various levels of the Chinese Communist Party honored her with titles such as “Model of National Unity,” “March 8 Red Banner Holder,” and “New Long March Vanguard,” granting her special benefits and privileges. She was later hired as an ordinary employee of the Peyziwat County government.

This essay is an English translation of a piece originally published in the Uyghur edition of the Uyghur Post.

Abdurrahim Parach, editor at Uyghur Post, holds a Literature degree focused on Kashgar toponyms. Since beginning his career in 1995, his work has appeared widely in Uyghur journals. His poetry collections Song Without a Homeland and Whispers of Longing were published in Turkey, and his linguistic study on the Kashgar dialect appeared in the International Uyghur Studies Journal in 2023.