Terror hits China: 16 cops killed in attack on police station in restive Uighur country

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

05 Aug 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com

Terror hits China: 16 cops killed in attack on police station in restive Uighur country

AT LEAST 16 policemen in northwest China were killed on Monday in a suspected terrorist attack, raising security fears four days before the Beijing Olympics. In what was one of the deadliest assaults in China in years, a truck was aimed at 70 police officers jogging near their barracks in Kashgar, a city in the Muslimmajority Xinjiang region. After the lorry hit a roadside pole, one of the two attackers stepped out and threw home- made explosives at the exercising police officers. According to Xinhua news agency, 14 policemen were killed instantly while two died on the way to hospital. Around 16 police officers also suffered injuries in the attack. The two attackers, aged 28 and 33, were arrested immediately. They were later identified as members of the Uighur group. " We were awakened by two very loud bangs," said Siegfried Maurer, a German who was staying with his family at the Barony Hotel close to the attack site. The police in Kashgar, which is close to the Tajikistan border and around 4,000 km from Beijing, immediately imposed a lockdown in the surrounding areas. " There were around 20 policemen on our floor. They checked our cameras to see if we had taken any pictures of the incident. We were not allowed to leave for four hours," Maurer said. " Everything has returned to normal", an official with the Kashgar People's Armed Police said, refusing to comment further. China's state media carries only sporadic reports about the violence in Xinjiang, making it difficult to determine the extent of the terrorist threat in the region. " If 16 people died, this is the highest casualty ever reported for an incident in Xinjiang ," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch and an expert on Xinjiang. The incident has thrown a shadow over the Olympic countdown, especially after the government warning that the Uighurs are planning to wreck the Games. The government had warned that a terrorist threat emanates from Xinjiang and that there were plans to attack the Games. Dilxat Raxit, a Sweden- based spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, said anger was rising among the group about a pre- Olympic crackdown involving numerous arrests, but could not confirm if Uighurs had carried out the attack. " The police and soldiers just arrest them without any rules," he said. The Olympic organisers in Beijing said they did not know if there was a direct connection between the attack and the sporting event. OUTSIDERS Oil- rich Xinjiang is home to 8 million Turkish- speaking Uighurs. They are a Muslim minority and distinct from the ethnic Han Chinese, culturally and linguistically. They wear short, round caps, but some of them also wear berets. The Uighurs follow the Islamic order — like not eating pork and not drinking alcohol. China lacks religious freedom and the Uighurs cite the want to practice their religion as the reason to demand an independent ' Hui state'. The Uighurs find support among other minorities in China, including Christians and Tibetans, and in the US — covertly so — and among the Pakistan Taliban.