Violence in China's restive Xinjiang region leaves 20 dead

Knife-wielding men kill 13 before police shoot seven assailants dead
March 1, 2012

Beijing Attackers wielding knives killed 13 people in China's Xinjiang region before police shot seven of them dead, the government said, in the latest violence to strike the ethnically divided north-western area.
Xinjiang's government said the killings on Tuesday night occurred on a busy pedestrian street in Yecheng County near Kashgar, a city in the south of Xinjiang that has been beset by tension between the mainly Muslim Uighur people and Han Chinese.
"Nine violent terrorists suddenly surged into the crowd and stabbed to death innocent people with their knives, causing 13 innocent people to die and injuring many," it said in a statement on official news portal www.tianshannet.com.
"Police rushed to the scene, handled the situation with resolution and shot dead seven violent terrorists, capturing two," it added.
Disputed region
The regional government did not identify any of the attackers or give their ethnicity. Nor did it identify the ethnicity of their victims. Yecheng, also known by its Uighur name of Kargilik, is close to the disputed region of Kashmir, which is partly controlled by India and partly by Pakistan.
China has blamed earlier incidents of violence on religious hardliners who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan. Some Chinese officials have also blamed attacks on Muslim militants trained in Pakistan.
But exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say China overstates the threat posed by militants in Xinjiang, which sits astride south and central Asia.
"China's demonstrated lack of transparency when it comes to unrest in East Turkestan necessitates deep speculation of official Chinese claims," Uighur American Association president Alim Seytoff said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Yecheng incident should not be overblown.
"The overall situation in Xinjiang is good," Hong told a daily news briefing.
"We firmly oppose a small group of violent terrorists and separatists destroying this kind of peaceful development and the calm... conditions."
Source http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/violence-in-china-s-restive-xinjiang-region-leaves-20-dead-1.988242