Beijing, August 10
Twelve pre-dawn blasts by suspected Islamic militants and an ensuing police crackdown killed at least eight persons in China’s restive northwest Xinjiang region today, within a week of an audacious attack that killed 16 policemen, forcing Beijing to tighten security for the ongoing Olympics.
The bomb blasts using home-made crude devices occurred in Kuqa County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in which seven bombers and a security guard were killed early morning, the regional government said.
Four persons, including two policemen, were also injured in the attacks against government facilities, which officials said involved at least 15 persons and 12 explosions of gas-based pipe bombs.
The county, which is about 740 km from the regional capital of Urumqi and 3,000 km from Beijing, was cordoned off and all offices and institutions were shut down, Xinhua news agency quoted the local police as saying.
Few pedestrians could be seen on the streets, and there were public security personnel at every intersection.
The attacks began at 2:30 am, when a explosive-laden three-wheeler rammed into a yard of the county police bureau, a regional government spokesman said.
The bombing killed a security guard, injured two police officers and two civilians and destroyed two police cars. The police shot dead one of the bombers and captured another at the scene. One bomber committed suicide and another was seriously hurt.
Later, the police found five bombers hiding under a market counter. They tossed home-made explosives at the police, who shot two of them dead. The other three blew themselves up.
According to the attacker,
captured in the initial incident, there were 15 persons involved in the bombings.
The bombers attacked the local government, the police and the economic and trade committee with explosive devices.
According to initial investigation, the devices were made of pipes, gas canisters and liquid gas tanks. The police seized a taxi that the attackers used for the bombings. Kuqa has a population of about four lakh. No group has claimed responsibility or been blamed for the blasts. However, Chinese officials have said militants seeking an independent homeland for Xinjiang’s largely Muslim Uygurs are one of the top security threats to ongoing August 8-24 Beijing Olympics.
An attack at a border police station in Xinjiang killed 16 policemen on Monday in which two Uygur suspects have been detained.
Oil-rich Xinjiang that borders Central Asia has about 8.3 million 3Uighurs, many unhappy with what they say has been six decades of repressive Chinese rule and fighting Beijing to establish a separate state called ‘East Turkistan’.
The ‘East Turkistan Islamic Movement’ was listed as a terrorist group by the UN in 2002 with alleged links to al Qaeda. China has repeatedly warned of terrorist threat emanating from Xinjiang, saying the separatists militants there were planning to attack the Olympics.
— PTI
