2011 Kashgar Attacks.

2011 Kashgar attacks 

The 2011 Kashgar attacks were a series of knife and bomb attacks in Kashgar, Xinjiang,China on July 30 and July 31, 2011. On July 30, two Uyghur men hijacked a truck, killed its driver, and drove into a crowd of pedestrians. They got out of the truck and stabbed six people to death and injured 27 others. One of the attackers was killed by the crowd; the other was brought into custody. On July 31, a chain of two explosions started a fire at a downtown restaurant. A group of armed Uyghur men killed two people inside of the restaurant and four people outside, injuring 15 other people. Police shot five suspects dead, detained four, and are seeking two others. The government says the attackers confessed to Jihadist motives and membership in the terrorist group East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), while an overseas pro-Uyghur independence group says the attackers were frustrated by a lack of options for nonviolent antigovernment protest.

Kashgar is "one of the most volatile cities in China", near to the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, and containing many cultural icons for the Chinese Uyghur minority. Uyghurs form about 80% of the population in Kashgar and live apart from the local Han people. Dru Gladney, an expert on Xinjiang, said that in Kashgar, "any small incident quickly overheats and boils into something much larger". In 2008, two Uyghur men killed 16 people in Kashgar with a combination truck collision and stabbing. The attacks ended just one day before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and one month after Kashgar opened a railway to Hotan, a city that had been the site of violence on July 18.

1^st Attack:

At 10:30 pm on July 30, two explosives detonated: one explosion in a parked minivan, another on a street lined with restaurants. Injured people were carried out of restaurants on stretchers and police cordoned off the area. Three people died from the blasts. At 11:45 pm, two armed Uyghur men hijacked a blue truck waiting at a traffic light by stabbing its driver to death. Thereafter, they drove the truck onto a crowded sidewalk lined with food stalls, exited the truck, and started stabbing pedestrians. Eventually the crowd overpowered the attackers, beating one of them to death before police detained the other. 27 people emerged alive with injuries, while eight victims died. A tourist operator in Kashgar told The Hindu that the police closed off several areas of the city, although residents say the atmosphere in the city is calm.

 2^nd attack:

During the afternoon on the following day, two explosions caused a fire at a downtown Kashgar restaurant. People who approached the blast radius were attacked by Uyghur men armed with guns and "eight different knives". The restaurant owner and a waiter were the first to die inside the restaurant. The assailants then ran outside of the restaurant and hacked at civilians with knives, killing four and injuring 12 other Han people. Firefighters arrived to put out the fire and police engaged in a firefight with the armed men, shooting five but sustaining three injuries of their own. Four of the shot suspects died immediately, and another died in hospital. Another four suspects were taken into custody, and two named Uyghur men who fled the scene have warrants for their arrest.

Aftermath:

The Chinese government is investigating the cause of the violence, and it did not offer an immediate explanation as for the attackers' motives. However, state media confirmed that all the suspected attackers were Uyghur, and an initial investigation from the Kashgar government concluded that the perpetrators gained explosives and firearms training at ETIM bases in Pakistan. The suspects, some of whom openly confessed to an ETIM connection, were reportedly influenced by Jihadist ideology. The ETIM's primary expertise is suicide bombing and car bombing, and it uses the internet as well as traditional training camps to spread its methods.

Chinese state media attributed both incidents to "terrorists", and attributed the recent uptick in attacks to Western media "sympathy for the terrorists". The Government of Pakistan said that "all incidents of terrorism are deplorable" and promised full cooperation with China "against the the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)". The Times of India reported that officials from the Communist Party of China are increasingly skeptical of Pakistan's ability to "insulate" China from violence originating from within Pakistan's borders. However, Xinjiang expert Michael Dillon told AFP there was little evidence that the group had any links to Pakistan.

Dilxadi Rexiti, a representative from the pro-Uyghur independence World Uyghur Congress (WUC), had a different view: he said that "Uyghurs have no peaceful way to oppose the Chinese government so some have taken to extreme measures." He also alleged that martial law had been declared in the city, but Reuters reported that it was not possible to determine if an actual order for martial law had been issued. Rebiya Kadeer, also of the WUC, said "I cannot blame the Uyghurs who carry out such attacks for they have been pushed to despair by Chinese policies".

The city is reported to have virtually "shut down", as Uyghur shops close down for Ramadan and Han shops close and Han people stay indoors out of fear. Riot police were deployed to the city and security checkpoints were established in the city center. City residents interviewed by Radio Free Asia believed that the attacks were aimed at Han people, and said that their internet posts expressing concern were deleted by the government. Prayers at the Id Kah Mosque were reportedly proceeding as usual, but tourists were placed on travel restrictions. The Communist Party of China held an emergency meeting in Ürümqi at which Zhang Chunxian, the Xinjiang CPC party chief, resolved to crack down on "religious extremist forces", saying that "terrorist attackers are the common enemies of all ethnic groups.

Related news article courtesy of Reuters. 

China blames Muslim extremists for attack in Xinjiang

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING | Mon Aug 1, 2011 4:09am EDT

(Reuters) - China said on Monday that Islamic militants had mounted an attack that left 11 people dead in the restive western region of Xinjiang, which announced a crackdown on "illegal" religious activities at the start of the Muslim fasting month.

The attack in Kashgar city on Sunday afternoon was the latest violence to rattle the region where Muslim Uighurs have long resented the presence of Han Chinese and religious and political controls imposed by Beijing.

It came less than 24 hours after two small blasts hit the city, which is dominated by Uighurs.

"The malign intention behind this violent terror was to sabotage inter-ethnic unity and harm social stability, provoking ethnic hatred and creating ethnic conflict," the Kashgar government said on its website (www.xjks.gov.cn).

Captured suspects confessed that their ringleaders had earlier fled to Pakistan and joined the separatist "East Turkestan Islamic Movement," and received training in making firearms and explosives before infiltrating back into China, the Kashgar government said.

"The members of this group all adhere to extremist religious ideas and adamantly support Jihad," said the statement, referring to the Arabic term for struggle used by advocates of militant Islam to describe their cause.

Police shot dead five people and arrested four others after they stormed a restaurant, set in on fire after killing the owner and a waiter, and then ran onto the street and hacked to death four people, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Chinese-language Global Times newspaper said all the suspected attackers were Uighur.

For the ruling Communist Party, the bloodshed presents a tricky test of its control in Xinjiang, where Uighur and Han Chinese residents view each other with suspicion. (For more on the issues see.)

Beijing has been wary of contagion from uprisings across the Arab world inspiring challenges to Party power in China.

"I think it's a testament to how tense the region remains, and the fact that you have increased polarization between ethnic groups," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher on China for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group.

"There's a lot of pent-up anger and resentment of Chinese policies in Kashgar," added Bequelin, noting a controversial program to raze homes in traditional Uighur neighborhoods and relocate them to housing under firmer official control.

The top Communist Party official in Xinjiang, Zhang Chunxian, announced a crackdown on religious extremism and vowed harsh punishment for those found guilty of attacks, according to the region's official news website (www.tianshannet.com).

"(We will) resolutely attack religious extremist forces and effectively curb illegal religious activities," Zhang said.

DESERTED STREETS AFTER BURST OF ATTACKS

Kashgar city lies in Xinjiang's south and has a population of some 600,000 people, about four fifths of them Uighur, according to the government. The city is divided between Uighur and Han Chinese areas, and many residents depend on tourism for their livelihoods.

China sees Xinjiang as strategically vital, and Beijing has shown no sign of loosening its grip on the territory, which accounts for a sixth of the country's land mass and holds deposits of oil and gas.

In July 2009, the regional capital, Urumqi, was rocked by violence between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people, many of them Han Chinese.

Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking people who have usually not embraced stricter forms of Islam, but in recent years religious traditionalism has made inroads.

Critics of Chinese policy in Xinjiang and advocates of Uighur self-rule say that Beijing has exaggerated the influence of terror groups, and its tough policies have deepened Uighur anger by smothering avenues for peaceful protest.

Bequelin, the human rights researcher, said he was skeptical about Chinese suggestions that the "East Turkestan Islamic Movement" (ETIM) was behind the attack.

"It's now an umbrella term used by China for any kind of Uighur separatist or anti-state activity," Bequelin said of ETIM, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States in 2002.

Earlier on Sunday, Chinese media reported that two men wielding knives attacked a truck driver and then a crowd of people following two explosions in Kashgar on Saturday night, leaving eight people dead including one of the attackers.

Eighteen people including 14 "rioters" were killed in an attack on a police station in Xinjiang on July 18, according to the government.

In July 2009, Xinjiang was hit by a public backlash from Han Chinese residents of the regional capital Urumqi, who said officials acted too slowly to quell bloody rioting by Uighurs after police broke up a protest by Uighur students.

The latest attack also brought calls on the Chinese Internet for a harsh response.

"Our hope rests in policy-makers completely cutting through entangling shackles, our hope rests with the military," said one comment about the assault on Sina's popular Weibo microblogging site (weibo.com).

(Additional reporting by Sally Huang; Editing by Ken Wills and Jonathan Thatcher). 

PS:I condemned this violence perpetrated by the extremists against the innocent civilians and by-standers. If these groups had some serious issues against the Chi-Coms, violence is not the answer to address their grievances. Although I hate the way the Chi-Coms are treating their neighbours and the other minorities, sowing fear and terror is evil.