Xinjiang, Urumqi attack "work of religious extremists"
Urumqi ( AsiaNews) - Yesterday's bomb attack on the train station in Urumqi, capital of the northern province of Xinjiang, "is the work of religious extremists, who have long been under a subversive and separatist influence". This is according to provincial authorities, quoted by the official Xinhua news . In the attack both the terrorists and an innocent civilian were killed: 79 people were injured, some are in critical condition. One of the two assailants was identified: Sedirdin Sawut, a Chinese citizen aged 39, from Aksu county.
The attack took place shortly after President Xi Jinping's departure from the region: the Chinese leader spent 4 days in Xinjiang, his first official visit to the area, during which he urged people to "better understand the separatism" of some local fringe groups to be able to "fight it better". According to several analysts and experts, the fact that the attack took place to coincide with Xi's visit of demonstrates that the extremists "want to raise the bar " in the armed confrontation with the authorities.
The central authorities have not clarified how they are going to investigate the case. Some groups of Uyghurs living abroad say that at least 100 people have already been arrested, but without giving precise data. Certainly security in the area has been significantly stepped up, and the normal police forces stationed in the region have be joined by at least 2 battalions from the People's Liberation Army.
Xinjiang province is one of the most turbulent in all of China. It is the homeland of ethnic Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim people that has always sought independence from Beijing. The central government has sent hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese to the region to try to make them the dominant ethnic group. It has also imposed serious restrictions on freedom of religion, Muslim practices, the teaching of the indigenous language and the local culture.
Since 2009 Chinese police and the military have held the region under a special regime, which Beijing imposed following clashes that left nearly 200 people dead. As a result of various episodes of violence, hundreds of long prison sentences were imposed and dozens of death penalties were carried out. Chinese authorities blame Muslim extremists for the wave of violence. Uyghur exiles claim instead that Beijing is "exaggerating" the threat of Islamic terrorism to justify repression against indigenous Uyghurs.
For Beijing, Uyghurs are responsible for the recent spate of violent attacks, including the 1 March 2014 attack at the Kunming railway station by knives-wielding men that left 29 people dead and more than 150 wounded, and the 28 October 2013 incident when an SUV plunged into a crowd in Tiananmen Square, then burst into flames, killing three people. The government believe that the ethnic group is behind these attacks.
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