Attacks kill another 11 in China's Xinjiang; toll up to 25

Beijing: Violence flared up again in China’s troubled Xinjiang province, with six civilians and five suspected “terrorists” being killed in attacks engineered reportedly by Uyghur separatists, taking the death toll in two days of bloodshed to 25. Violent attacks continued in Kashghar city of the volatile province, whose capital Urumqi witnessed massive riots in 2009 claiming almost 200 lives. Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reported that five ‘suspects’ were shot dead by police last night, while four others were nabbed. [caption id=“attachment_51503” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“rmed policemen aiming their weapons near a burning office as they try to rescue hostages in a police station during a clash in Hotan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region July 18, 2011. R euters”]  [/caption] At least 14 people, including a Chinese police officer, were killed earlier in a spate of violent incidents.Fresh attacks left six civilians dead and 15 others, including three policemen, injured. The local government said in a statement that a “group of armed terrorists” broke into a restaurant in the city centre in Kashghar about 4 p m yesterday and killed the restaurant owner and a waiter besides setting fire to it. “They then ran out and hacked civilians indiscriminately, leaving four dead and 12 injured, while police and fire fighters were striving to put out the fire,” it said. Police then opened fire and killed four ‘suspects’ at the scene, while another ‘suspect’ died later in a hospital, it said, adding it was a “premeditated terrorist attack”. Police have condoned off the area where the violence occurred and all shops on the commercial street have closed. Police have also imposed traffic controls on major roads and squares by midnight in the oasis city in southern Xinjiang. The fresh attacks took place after 14 “rioters” were killed when they reportedly attacked a police station and killed four people in Xinjiang’s Hotan city on 18 July. The attack left four people dead, including an armed police officer, a security guard, a woman and a teenage girl. After the restaurant was attacked yesterday, many pedestrians fled in horror from the downtown area while police cars, fire engines and ambulances whizzed by to cope with the second violent incident within a day. The attacks resembled the 2009 riots in which Uyghurs attacked Chinese Han settlers in the capital of Xinjiang which borders Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, (POK). Police had concluded that the riot was “a severely violent terrorism case,” which was organised and premeditated by terrorist groups, Xinhua reported said. Since the 2009 violence, Chinese security forces have launched a crackdown on a separatist militant group called East Turkistan Movement (ETM), which China accuses of fomenting trouble in the region besides Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer, who currently lived in US in exile. Yesterday’s attacks were also reportedly directed against Han settlers. The renewed violence happened after a spate of incidents Saturday and Sunday in which 14 persons were killed. The attacks left the mainland Chinese scared to do business in the province. A young man, who is from Lanzhou, the capital of neighbouring Gansu Province and doing business in Kashghar, said: “I feel really scared after two violent attacks on civilians within 24 hours,” Xinhua reported. PTI