Hasan Mahsum

In 2015 the Turkistan Islamic Party (East Turkistan Islamic Movement) released an image showing Al Qaeda leaders Ayman al Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden meeting with Hasan Mahsum.

In 2014 Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria released a video series called "Blessings for the strangers" (طوبى للغرباء) (طوبا للغرباء). In the second video of the series, the leader of TIP in Syria Abu Rida al-Turkestani (أبو رضا التركستاني) read out a document with an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) letterhead, detailing the history of the founding of the Turkistan Islamic Party by Hasan Mahsum and "East Turkstani immigrants" when they moved to Taliban controlled Afghanistan, gave allegiance to Mullah Omar and founded the organization.

Uyghur detainees at Guantanamo bay have confessed that they were trained by Abdul Haq and Hassan Mahsum in Afghanistan, Abdul Haq was the leader who threatened terror attacks on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, sits on the Shura Council of al-Qaeda, and subscribes to the methodology of al-Qaeda.

Hasan Mahsum (or Hassan Makhdum), also known as Abu-Muhammad al-Turkestani and Ashan Sumut, was the leader of the Islamic extremist group East Turkestan Islamic Party and suspected of having ties with Al Qaeda. He was shot dead in a counter-terrorism operation on October 2, 2003 by the Pakistani Army.

Chinese, Pakistani, and US officials confirmed that Mahsum was shot dead in an early-morning raid on a suspected al-Qaeda training camp by the Pakistan Army in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, on October 2, 2003. The Pakistani army attacked an al-Qaeda hideout in South Waziristan near the border with Afghanistan on 2 October 2003, shooting and killing eight terrorists, including Mahsum. The Beijing News and International Herald Leader initially reported that the United States worked with Pakistan in a joint counter-terrorism operation, but Major General Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, denied U.S. military involvement. Sultan said "DNA tests were conducted to determine it was him." The Chinese government assisted in identifying his body.

Several of the Uyghur captives in Guantanamo acknowledged having met or having seen, an individual named Hassan Mahsum at a camp in eastern Afghanistan in mid to late 2001.

Mahsum, a native of Shule (Kunixar) County, became involved with the East Turkestan independence movement early in his life; in his late 20s, he was already a lecturer at a training camp in Yecheng County, preaching Jihad and advocating the use of violence against Chinese authorities. He was arrested in October 1993 by the Chinese police for terrorist activities and sentenced to three years of re-education through labour. After fleeing China in 1997 to Mecca, Mahsum joined the Taliban and lived in Afghanistan and Pakistan; he held an Afghan passport issued by the Taliban. In early 1999, he was said to have met with Osama bin Laden, who offered him US$300,000 of financial assistance for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in the following year; Mahsum himself denied any connection with bin Laden. The Chinese government has accused him of directing a series of violent terrorist activities including robbery and murder in Ürümqi on February 4, 1999 and violent murders in the Khotan region on December 14, 1999; it is believed that these attacks were carried out by an operative of his named Mutalif Kasim.

Doğu Türkistan Bülteni Haber Ajansı interviewed Turkistan Islamic Party leader Abdullah Mansur and claimed that the Communists killed 60 million Uyghurs, attacking the idea of democracy and attacking America, saying that Uighurs should follow the "prophetic methodology" of jihad and that only Alalh would provide victory, attacking South Sudan and East Timor, claiming “East Turkistan” is an integral part of Islam and the Islamic Ummah, talking about Hasan Mahsum bringing the Turkistan Islamic Party in 1997 to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the Turkistan Islamic Party’s allegiance to the Taliban.

In 1989 Zeydin Yusup started the group which was originally called East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP). The movement was reshuffled by Hasan Mahsum and Abudukadir Yapuquan in 1997 into its present incarnation.

Doğu Türkistan Bülteni Haber Ajansı mentioned a brief history of the TIP, from Zeyiddin Yusuf founding it in 1988 in "East Turkestan", to its participation in the 1990 riots and insurgency, its "jihad in the path of Allah", its migration in 1996 under Hasan Mahsum to the Taliban controlled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and its war since 2001 against the "Crusaders" for 15 years in the "Afghan jihad", to 2012, when it entered the SYrian Civil War. It released a video showing footage of its battles in Syria including at Abu Dhuhur.

Turkistan Islamic Party leader Abdullah Mansur wrote an article on the sayings of TIP leader Hassan Makhdum (حسن مخدوم) in the 2nd edition of the "Islamic Turkistan" magazine.

Abdul Hameed, Abdul Azeez Makhdoom and Abdul Hakeem Makhdoom launched the Islamic Party of Turkistan in 1940. After being set free from prison in 1979, Abdul Hakeem instructed Hasan Mahsum and other Uyghurs in fundamentalist Islam.