BEIJING, SEP 26 -
Chinese state media reported Thursday that 50 people, including 40
assailants, were killed in a series of explosions over the weekend in
the far western region of Xinjiang, in what officials called a severe
terror attack.
Regional authorities had earlier said that the explosions Sunday in
Luntai county killed at least two people and injured many others.
The news portal Tianshan Net said bombs exploded at two police
stations, a produce market and a store. It said the attack killed two
police officers, two police assistants and six bystanders, and that 54
others were injured. It said police took swift action and 40 assailants
were either shot dead or died in explosions.
Police captured two attackers, and an investigation found that Maimaiti
Tuerxun, a man who was fatally shot, was responsible for the attack,
the news portal said. The official Xinhua News Agency spelled the man's
name as Mamat Tursun. Names for people from the Uighur and other ethnic
groups in China are sometimes transcribed differently in English.
Regional authorities were not available for comment Thursday night.
Ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, home of the Muslim Uighur minority group,
have killed more than 300 people in the past year and a half. Chinese
authorities have blamed the unrest on foreign-influenced terrorists
seeking a separate state. Many Muslim Uighurs bristle under Beijing's
heavy-handed restrictions on their religious life and resent the influx
of the Chinese Han majority into their homeland.
On Tuesday, a court gave a life sentence to a Uighur scholar who has criticized China
's ethnic policies and sought to reduce tensions between Uighurs and
the Han majority. The court found Ilham Tohti guilty of separatism,
saying he incited ethnic hatred and instigated violence.
Authorities have also launched a one-year crackdown on terrorism in
Xinjiang, and Chinese state media applauded Ilham Tohti's guilty verdict
as a victory in that campaign.
Scholars and human rights advocates say the strike-hard campaign could
further radicalize the Uighur people and result in more violence.
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