Chinese police have shot dead two suspects being hunted for a deadly attack in the restive western region of Xinjiang, which an exiled regional leader blamed on Beijing’s hardline policies towards her people.
The two suspects, Memtieli Tiliwaldi and Turson Hasan, were shot by police late on Monday in corn fields on the outskirts of Kashgar city, where on Sunday assailants stormed a restaurant, killed the owner and a waiter, then hacked four people to death, according to the Khasgar government website. The attack was the latest burst of violence to rattle Xinjiang, where many of the minority Muslim Uighurs resent the presence of Han Chinese, and the controls imposed by Beijing. Chinese officials quickly blamed the attack on Uighur Islamic militants campaigning for an independent homeland, and said the ringleaders received training in making firearms and explosives in Pakistan before returning to China.
