 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.The Uyghurs East Turkestan independence movement was endorsed in the serial "Islamic Spring”'s 9th release by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the chief of Al-Qaeda.Zawahiri confirmed that the Afghanistan war after 9/11 included the participation of Uighurs and that the jihadists like Zarwaqi, Bin Ladin and the Uighur Hasan Mahsum were provided with refuge together in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.