Death toll from Xinjiang attacks higher than reported

At least 12 people, including three policemen, were killed and about 100 injured in attacks on government buildings and police stations in China’s troubled Xinjiang province last Sunday, Radio Free Asia reported yesterday.

Citing local officials and eyewitnesses in a southern prefecture of Xinjiang, the news service said the casualties of violence on Sunday was higher than reported on the Xinjiang government’s Tianshan web portal, which said two people had been killed in the attack by suspected Uighur militants in Bugur county, in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture.

The report came amid growing anger after a court in the regional capital sentenced an Uighur academic, Ilham Tohti, to life in prison for separatism. Court documents said he had “exploited foreign forces to create pressure to make Xinjiang an international matter”.

Rule of law

In a statement after his sentencing, Tohti said: “I count myself fortunate when I look at what has happened to my students and other Uighurs accused of separatist crimes.

“I had my own Han lawyer whom I appointed to defend me,” he said. “And my family was allowed to attend my trial. I was able to say what I wanted to say. I hope that, through my case, rule of law in Xinjiang can improve.”

Xinjiang is home to more than 10 million Turkic-speaking Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim ethnic group that shares close linguistic and cultural links to central Asia.

Violence in the region has intensified in the past 18 months, and hundreds have died in violence – more than 200 people in the past year – which Beijing blames on Islamist militants and separatists, prompting a major crackdown by authorities.

Local cadres said the raids on the Bugur city centre and the townships of Yengisar and Terekbazar had left at least a dozen people dead. The victims were all killed during a bomb attack at a police station in Yengisar, and the number of fatalities in Bugur and Terekbazar was not immediately know, sources told RFA.

“I assume there are about 100 people with injuries, because all the hospital beds are occupied right now,” a nurse said at a local hospital.

Among those undergoing treatment were up to 20 policemen, as well as one suspected attacker, she said.

Separatists

This year has seen a rise in the number of attacks by separatists. In March, 29 people were killed and 140 injured when eight knife-wielding assailants attacked at the main train station in the southwestern city of Kunming. Police shot four of the attackers dead.

The Kunming attack sent shockwaves across the country and raised fears of similar terror attacks nationwide. Weeks later, in May, a suicide bombing killed 39 people at a market in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi.