Armed Chinese paramilitary policemen march during an anti-terrorist drill in Xinjiang, July 2, 2013.
ImagineChina
Chinese police have shot dead three suspects who they said killed two people in a “terrorist” attack on a branch office of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, official media reported on Thursday.
The “rioters” detonated an explosive device during the attack on Wednesday afternoon, as well as launching a knife attack, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
“At around 4:50 p.m. Wednesday … rioters entered the yard of Moyu County Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in a vehicle, attacked workers with knives and detonated an explosive device,” it cited the ministry of public security as saying.
The attack killed an official and a security worker and injured three others, the report said, adding that three people were shot dead at the scene and that the case is now under investigation.
An employee who answered the phone at the Moyu county police department hung up the phone when contacted by RFA on Thursday.
An employee at the Moyu County People’s Hospital also declined to comment.
However, an employee who answered the phone at a hotel one kilometer away from the blast said the county town is now under lockdown, with riot police patrolling the streets.
“There are riot police and armed police here, although we’re not located at the scene,” the employee said. “The patrols keep coming by, every couple of minutes.”
“There’s a traffic police platform and kiosk right next to us, and we have stepped up security inside the hotel as well,” the employee said.
“This place was always pretty quiet and peaceful before. We never thought that something like this could happen here.”
Extremists blamed
Beijing blames Uyghur extremists for a string of violent attacks and clashes in recent years. But critics say the government has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs, and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for violence that has left hundreds dead since 2009.
A Moyu resident said police are now focusing their investigation on where the attackers came from.
“[Apparently] they came from a county in Hotan prefecture, about 20 or 30 kilometers from here,” the resident said. “[They are investigating] whether the attack was organized from overseas or within China, and where they got the materials to carry it out.”
“It’s not likely that they would be able to make bombs in China nowadays,” he said. “Where did the bomb come from, and how did they manage to drive the vehicle here?”
“It all indicates that they must have had funding, and a driver’s license.”
China has vowed to crack down on what it calls religious extremism in Xinjiang, and regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns that include random, nighttime police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including clothing and personal appearance.
Beijing in December 2015 passed a new anti-terrorism law banning anyone from disseminating images or information regarding terrorist activities, and authorizing anti-terrorist operations by security forces beyond China’s borders.
U.S. officials have said they fear the new law could be used to target peaceful dissent and religious activities among ethnic minorities in China, particularly Uyghurs.
‘It’s all segregated’
An employee of a second hotel in Moyu said that they segregate guests along ethnic lines, reserving entire floors for Han Chinese, and allocating rooms on separate floors to the mostly Muslim Uyghurs.
“The two ethnic groups are kept separate, with the Han Chinese on the first, second, and third floors,” the employee said. “It’s all segregated.”
“We also check everyone’s bags when they check in, and their ID. Whatever time of day, we check them.”
According to an exile Uyghur group, police have already detained 14 Uyghurs along the highway between Moyu and Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi), with more than 20 people detained within Moyu county.
“There is a strong police presence on the roads and streets,” Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, told RFA.
“All government departments and agencies are now under armed guard, and the government is controlling who goes in and out of the county much more strictly now,” he said.
“There is also an operation across the entire county town, as well as tight controls over the flow of information online, so they can cover up the truth about the incident,” Raxit said.
He said recent attacks in Xinjiang are entirely the result of Beijing’s oppressive policies in the region, which have exacerbated ethnic tensions and driven Uyghurs to violent resistance.
French journalist barred
Last year, Chinese officials refused to renew the working visa of French journalist Ursula Gauthier after she angered Beijing by writing an article critical of its policies in Xinjiang.
Gauthier, the Beijing-based correspondent for French news magazine L’Obs, had “flagrantly championed acts of terrorism and acts of cruelly killing innocents,” the foreign ministry said.
Gauthier had suggested that a string of violent incidents in Xinjiang could be the result of oppressive policies, and questioned China’s motives in expressing sympathy for the victims of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris.
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
