SEVEN PEOPLE were killed and 14 were injured in China’s troubled far western province of Xinjiang yesterday after a tricycle packed with explosives blew up in a crowded suburb in Aksu city.
“Police say it was an intentional act because the suspect was carrying explosive devices,” Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government, told a news conference in the regional capital of Urumqi, which is 650km from Aksu.
In July last year, long-running tensions between Turkic Muslim Uighurs and China’s majority Han flared into full-on ethnic riots. In China’s worst violence in decades, nearly 200 people were killed, most of them ethnic Han Chinese. Local Uighurs turned on Han Chinese in Urumqi after a protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China in June that left two Uighurs dead.
An Uighur suspect in yesterday’s attack was injured in the blast and was captured immediately. The casualties came from different ethnic minority backgrounds, and some were in serious condition.
Tensions have remained high in Xinjiang since the riots – hundreds were arrested, and two dozen rioters were sentenced to death. Many other Uighurs are unaccounted for and are believed to be in custody.
There have been intermittent bombings and attacks on the security forces over the years, and the Beijing government regularly announces the breaking up of separatist groups planning attacks.
One such operation was a raid on a bomb-making unit near Aksu last year, which the government said had links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a banned militant organisation advocating independence for Xinjiang.
The Uighurs are the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, at 45 per cent of the population. Many feel they are being overwhelmed by Han Chinese settlers, and that their language and culture is being threatened by Chinese oppression. However, the Chinese say they are bringing prosperity and stability to the resources-rich province.