Chinese police have killed 28 members of a "terrorist group" in the
mainly Muslim Xinjiang region, authorities announced Friday, in the
bloodiest such operation in months and as Beijing denounces Western
"double standards" in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The killings took place over the course of a 56-day manhunt
following an attack on a colliery in Aksu in September that left 16
people dead, said the Xinjiang regional government's Tianshan web
portal. One "thug" surrendered, it added.
It was the first official confirmation of both the attack on the
mine and its aftermath. Xinjiang is the homeland of the mostly Muslim
Uighur ethnic minority, many of whom complain of discrimination and
controls on their culture and religion, and is often hit by deadly
unrest.
The assault on the colliery was "a violent terrorist attack under
the direct command of an overseas extremist organisation", Tianshan
said. China's official Xinhua news agency cited a Xinjiang government
statement identifying the attack leaders as Musa Tohniyaz and Mamat
Aysa, both apparently Uighur names.
Earlier this week RFA cited government and local sources as saying
17 suspects, including seven women and children -- among them a
one-year-old and six-year-old -- had been killed by authorities. Beijing
regularly accuses what it says are exiled Uighur separatist groups such
as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement of being behind attacks in
Xinjiang, which has seen a wave of deadly unrest. Authorities launched a
"strike hard" campaign in Xinjiang after a bomb rocked the main train
station in the regional capital Urumqi last year as President Xi Jinping
was wrapping up a visit to the city.
The crackdown has seen mass trials and multiple executions. In
March 2014, 31 people were knifed to death at a train station in
Kunming, in southwestern China, with four attackers killed, with
Xinjiang separatists blamed and state media dubbing it "China's
9/11". Two months later 39 people were killed in a bloody market attack
in Urumqi.
0 comments :
Post a Comment