A Sale resident has enlisted the help of local MP Paul Goggins and the foreign office minister Ivan Lewis in the fight to have his brother freed.

Dilimulati Paerhati, 31, of School Road Sale, has not spoken to his brother Dilixaiti Paerhati, 28, since he was taken from his home in north-west China in August last year.

The pair are Uighur Muslims, an ethnic minority community from the troubled region of Xinjiang which experienced widespread unrest and rioting in July last year.

Dilixaiti, editor of a popular website that was shut-down by authorities in July, disappeared on August 7.

He had already been held in custody for eight days.

Dilimulati, a business management student at Manchester Metropolitan University, said he has heard nothing about his brother’s whereabouts since he was taken.

He has been unable to return to China since the riots because of fears that he will also be arrested.

“I just want to know that my brother is OK, and to help him get released. He hasn’t done anything wrong.

“The phone lines are blocked after the unrest in Xinjiang so I can’t even speak to my family to find out if they’ve had any news.

“5,000 people disappeared on one night from the area and nobody knows where they are, people are asking where are their sons and their husbands and nobody knows anything,” he said.

Dilimulati and Mr Goggins met the foreign office minister on Friday, March 12 to talk about their concerns for Dilixaiti’s safety.

Mr Goggins said the meeting had been a success as Mr Lewis promised that he would raise the issue in the UK and China dialogue on Human Rights that is planned for later this month.

The dialogue had originally been scheduled for January, but was cancelled after China executed British citizen Akmal Shaikh on December 29.

“Dilimulati is deeply worried about Dilixiati’s disappearance and it is important that our questions are answered by the Chinese authorities,” Mr Goggins said.