Chinese police shot dead 13 people in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region after they drove into a police building and set off an explosion yesterday, regional authorities said, in the latest violence to hit the region.
The area in China’s west, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, has faced a series of violent incidents in recent years.
Beijing has vowed a crackdown on terrorism recently, following several high-profile attacks blamed on Xinjiang militants, who since late last year have reportedly struck outside the region and targeted ordinary citizens rather than government or security personnel.
“Today, thugs crashed a car into the public security building of Kargilik County in Xinjiang’s Kashgar Prefecture and set off an explosion. Police took decisive action and shot dead 13 thugs,” the Xinjiang Government Web site Tianshan reported.
Three officers suffered injuries, but there were no other casualties, the report said, without providing further details. It was unclear how many explosive devices were used.
Xinhua news agency described the vehicle as a truck and said the attack happened in the morning, adding that authorities were investigating and “local social order is normal.”
China’s most powerful body, the Politburo Standing Committee, said last month that “cracking down on violent terrorist activities must be the focal point of the current struggle,” Xinhua reported at the time.
Authorities have announced hundreds of detentions or criminal punishments, including the sentencing of 55 people last month, for offenses such as terrorism at a ceremony in a stadium attended by 7,000 people.
This week, China executed 13 people for “terrorist attacks” in Xinjiang and ordered the death penalty for three others for a car crash in October last year in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
In that incident, three family members drove into the tourist area, killing two people and wounding 40 before the car burst into flames and they died.
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