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POLICE IN CHINA’S far-western Xinjiang region have shot six attackers dead, according to a state-run news outlet.
The incident comes amid a security clampdown in the violence-torn, mainly Muslim area. There were no police or civilian casualties, according to the report by Xinjiang’s Government-run Tianshan news site.
Xinjiang is home to China’s 9 million Turkic-speaking and mostly Muslim ethnic minority.
Today’s clash was triggered when residents of Shule county, near the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, noticed “a suspicious person carrying an explosive device”, Tianshan said. They called the police, who opened fire after the attacker tried to set upon an officer with an axe and detonate the device, according to the report.
The assailant was killed, but soon afterwards five more attackers “sought to ignite explosive devices one after the other”, Tianshan said. The five were “resolutely” shot dead by police, it added.
China’s ruling Communist Party tightly restricts access to the region and information is difficult to independently verify.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the overseas-based World Uyghur Congress, said that “several dozen” Uighurs had been detained by authorities in the wake of the incident.
“China’s allegations of a so-called terrorist attack are an excuse to cover up the excessive use of force,” he said in a statement.
He pointed to China’s “hostile policies” in the region as having triggered unrest, without citing specifics.
Violence linked to Xinjiang has intensified over the past year, with at least 200 people killed in a series of clashes and increasingly sophisticated attacks in the resource-rich region and beyond it.
Crackdown
Beijing, which blames Xinjiang-related violence on “religious extremists”, “separatists” and “terrorists”, has responded by launching a severe crackdown in recent months, with hundreds of arrests and around 50 executions and death sentences publicly announced since June.
Rights groups argue that harsh police treatment of the Uighur minority, as well as government campaigns against religious practices such as the wearing of veils, have led to violence.
On Saturday, Xinjiang’s regional legislature voted to ban the wearing of burqas in public areas in Urumqi, Xinhua reported. The measure “is seen as an effort to curb growing extremism that forced Uighur women to abandon their colourful traditional dress and wear black burqas,” the news agency said.
China denies repression, saying it has brought badly-needed modernisation and economic development to the vast and landlocked region bordering Central Asia.
In December a court in the regional capital of Urumqi condemned eight people to death for two deadly attacks, one on the city’s main train station and another on a market there.
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You can be sure that China wont tolerate extemists like we.
Absolutely. The Chinese – A great bunch of lads.
Problem with China is they don’t tolerate free speech either.
Exactly. Let’s all adopt China’s ethics.
There has been conflict in this regions between the Chinese government and Islamists for years, people are regularly getting killed (as in, every few weeks). Why only report it now?
Maybe now, people are finally waking up to the danger Islamofascism poses.
Because media outlets have a finite amount of time and space and have to partly reflect the interests of their readership, viewership or listenership. Uighur unrest is generally not newsworthy for small Irish publications. With the events of last week in France and Nigeria, it’s a lot more newsworthy.
The news isn’t a list of everything that happens on the planet, nor is it necessarily a ranked list of death tolls. The media has to weigh what thinks will resonate with an audience. By necessity, that requires a degree of filtering.
Islamic attacks have been reported here many times?
Riddled to death .
Good one China you make us look like pussies now we know why you are going to be the worlds number one on top of the US and EU.
In the “who has killed more muslims ” league table, the west is still on top.
No themselves, but I am sure they will get help in killing us by you and the PC left.
Dunno about that, Genghis Khan slaughtered a fair few of them. 1.2 million in one city alone. The sacking of Urgench.
Innocent civilian Muslims at that.
At the same time the Normans were invading Ireland and bringing their Christian values with them. Or were they, was it purely about greed and conquest. I suppose the first homo sapien to emerge from the horn of Africa and dream about world conquest is the money king.
Mean’t to say monkey king. Same thing though.
Lol burn…
Lol burn…
Lol burn…
Good stuff China. The only good Islamist is a dead islamist
Odd that frank is not on here accusing the Chinese of conducting a false flag operation?
Hello frank?
How refreshing to see the hackneyed use of quotations with the term “terrorist” whenever something like this happens in China.
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