Yesbolat’s family members overseas have lost contact with him two days before he was detained on 13 November 2021. He lived in a Uyghur neighborhood in Ghulja (Yining) County where more than 40 people had been detained. Starting from 2017, the local authorities used to summon him and question him at least once or twice a week about other residents of the village. The police confiscated his passport in 2018 and threatened him numerous times. According to the last voice message Yesbolat sent to his family, who now lives in Kazakhstan, the police asked him many questions about praying five times a day in the same mosque with Uyghurs and asked what other members of his congregation talked about. His other relatives were threatened and warned against disseminating information about Yesbolat. His family members overseas believe that he was taken away because he had a beard, a noticeably short one.