Violence in Xinjiang
June 21, 2014
Three police officers were also injured in Saturday's attack, the latest incident in a wave violence that has gripped China's western Xinjiang province.
"The gangsters drove a vehicle to ram the building of the public security bureau of Yecheng County in southern Xinjiang and set off explosives," reported the state news agency, Xinhau.
Xinjiang is home to the predominantly Muslim ethnic Uighur community, which has a tense relationship with Beijing. Many Uighurs accuse the Chinese government of restricting their cultural and religious practices and discriminating against them in favor of the Han ethnic group.
Beijing has blamed separatist Uighur militants affiliated with the East Turkestan Islamist Movement for launching a series of lethal attacks recently.
Earlier this week, authorities executed 13 people for "terrorist attacks" in Xinjiang. Beijing sentenced three others to death for an attack last October in Tiananmen Square, in which assailants drove a car into a crowd, killing two pedestrians and wounding 40 others.
Last month, assailants threw explosives and drove off-road vehicles through a market in Xinjiang's provincial capital, Urumqi. At least 43 people died in that attack.
In March, attackers armed with knives went on a stabbing spree in the southwestern city of Kunming, killing 29 people and wounding 143 others.
slk/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters)