21 die as gang clashes with police in Xinjiang
Source: Xinhua/Shanghai Daily |
April 25, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Police officers and social workers were among 21 people killed in suspected terrorist attacks in China's far western region of Xinjiang, officials said yesterday.
The incident began at around noon on Tuesday in a town in Kashgar Prefecture's Bachu County, some 1,200 kilometers southwest of Urumqi, the regional capital.
Three community workers who discovered suspicious individuals and knives in the home of a local resident reported the situation to supervisors by phone, but were seized by people who had been hiding in the house.
Police and local officials rushed to the scene, but were attacked and 12 of them were killed. The three community workers were also killed and the house set on fire.
Other police officers who arrived at the scene shot six terrorist suspects dead and got the situation under control. Two other officials were injured in the clash, and eight terrorist suspects were captured.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said initial investigations indicated the suspects were members of a gang intent on carrying out terrorist activities.
"The current situation in Xinjiang is on the whole good. But there are a handful of terrorist forces doing whatever they can to try to disrupt the current trend of stability and development in Xinjiang," she said.
"Their schemes do not enjoy popular support and will not succeed."
Further investigation into the case is under way.
A series of bloody riots have erupted in Xinjiang in recent years and last month 20 men were jailed on terrorism charges.
In Urumqi on July 5, 2009, about 200 people died in the worst outbreak of violence for decades. Around 1,700 others were injured and many vehicles and buildings destroyed.
On July 18, 2011, a group of young Uygur men stormed a police station in the city of Hotan. The men stabbed a police officer, took two female hostages, and killed another officer with a bomb.
The attack ended when police shot and killed 14 of the attackers.
Several days later, on July 30, in a terrorist attack in Kashgar, a group of men ran into a crowded street and started stabbing people. Thirteen people were killed in that incident, with another 42 injured, including three policemen.
Zhang Chunxian, secretary of the Xinjiang committee of the Communist Party, once asked soldiers to maintain vigilance against all sorts of hostile forces and to strike at the "three forces" - a term for separatists, extremists, and terrorists - with "iron fists."
"We should leave terrorists no place to hide," Zhang said.
The incident began at around noon on Tuesday in a town in Kashgar Prefecture's Bachu County, some 1,200 kilometers southwest of Urumqi, the regional capital.
Three community workers who discovered suspicious individuals and knives in the home of a local resident reported the situation to supervisors by phone, but were seized by people who had been hiding in the house.
Police and local officials rushed to the scene, but were attacked and 12 of them were killed. The three community workers were also killed and the house set on fire.
Other police officers who arrived at the scene shot six terrorist suspects dead and got the situation under control. Two other officials were injured in the clash, and eight terrorist suspects were captured.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said initial investigations indicated the suspects were members of a gang intent on carrying out terrorist activities.
"The current situation in Xinjiang is on the whole good. But there are a handful of terrorist forces doing whatever they can to try to disrupt the current trend of stability and development in Xinjiang," she said.
"Their schemes do not enjoy popular support and will not succeed."
Further investigation into the case is under way.
A series of bloody riots have erupted in Xinjiang in recent years and last month 20 men were jailed on terrorism charges.
In Urumqi on July 5, 2009, about 200 people died in the worst outbreak of violence for decades. Around 1,700 others were injured and many vehicles and buildings destroyed.
On July 18, 2011, a group of young Uygur men stormed a police station in the city of Hotan. The men stabbed a police officer, took two female hostages, and killed another officer with a bomb.
The attack ended when police shot and killed 14 of the attackers.
Several days later, on July 30, in a terrorist attack in Kashgar, a group of men ran into a crowded street and started stabbing people. Thirteen people were killed in that incident, with another 42 injured, including three policemen.
Zhang Chunxian, secretary of the Xinjiang committee of the Communist Party, once asked soldiers to maintain vigilance against all sorts of hostile forces and to strike at the "three forces" - a term for separatists, extremists, and terrorists - with "iron fists."
"We should leave terrorists no place to hide," Zhang said.
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