BEIJING: At least 27 people have died, 10 of them in police firing, following a communal clash in China's restive Xinjiang region bordering Pakistan and Central Asia on Wednesday morning. The deaths include those of nine policemen.
Official sources said police opened fire after a mob armed with knives attacked police stations and a local government building in Turpan prefecture of the western China province, which has a large population of Uyghurs, who are Turkic Muslims.
State media said violence by knife wielding mobs had already killed eight civilians and nine security personnel in Lukwun, a remote township in Turpan, 200kms from the regions's capital of Urumqi, when police opened fire killing 10 rioters. The rioters stabbed people and set police cars alight, state media said quoting local officials.
This is the second major case of violence since last April when 21 people including 10 policemen were killed. Xinjiang has been the scene of a violent agitation for splitting China to create an East Turkmenistan nation. The worst case of bloodshed took place in 2009 when 200 people were killed.
Local officials have in the past cited Taliban bases in Pakistan as the source of training and arms used by Uyghur separatists but the Chinese foreign ministry has defended Pakistan's "battle against terrorism".
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Ethnic riots rock China?s Uighur area, 27 killed - The Times of India
Official sources said police opened fire after a mob armed with knives attacked police stations and a local government building in Turpan prefecture of the western China province, which has a large population of Uyghurs, who are Turkic Muslims.
State media said violence by knife wielding mobs had already killed eight civilians and nine security personnel in Lukwun, a remote township in Turpan, 200kms from the regions's capital of Urumqi, when police opened fire killing 10 rioters. The rioters stabbed people and set police cars alight, state media said quoting local officials.
This is the second major case of violence since last April when 21 people including 10 policemen were killed. Xinjiang has been the scene of a violent agitation for splitting China to create an East Turkmenistan nation. The worst case of bloodshed took place in 2009 when 200 people were killed.
Local officials have in the past cited Taliban bases in Pakistan as the source of training and arms used by Uyghur separatists but the Chinese foreign ministry has defended Pakistan's "battle against terrorism".
...
Ethnic riots rock China?s Uighur area, 27 killed - The Times of India