Twenty-one people, including police officers and social workers, have been killed in violent clashes in China’s ethnically divided western region of Xinjiang in what the government is calling an act of terrorism.
Al Jazeera’s Marga Ortigas said on Wednesday police were investigating an arson attack in the region where the violence began. “The region has been the focal point for ethnic and racial tensions for quite some time now,” Ortigas said.
A local official confirmed to the AFP news agency on Wednesday that the battle had taken place. “Twenty-one persons were killed in all… including social workers and policemen,” the official said. He told the news agency that the violence broke out on Tuesday when three local officials reported a group of suspicious men armed with knives hiding inside a home in Selibuya township outside the city of Kashgar.
‘Uyghur repression’: Tianshan Net, a government-run news website, described the fighting as a “violent terror incident”. It said 15 of those killed were either police or social workers, with 11 of them being members of China’s Uyghur ethnic minority, who mainly live in Xinjiang.
Six “gang members” were shot dead in the violence, while eight more were captured, the report said. The source who spoke to AFP confirmed the contents of the report, but said he did not know how many police were among the dead. The incident points to the chaotic nature of much of the Xinjiang violence, as well as problems with how authorities respond.
