China blames ‘extremists’ for Xinjiang riot

China on Sunday said religious extremists were behind last week’s violence in which 35 people were killed in the remote northwestern area of Xinjiang as authorities stepped up security including round-the-clock patrol in region. Sutirtho Patranobis reports.

China on Sunday said religious extremists were behind last week’s violence in which 35 people were killed in the remote northwestern area of Xinjiang as authorities stepped up security including round-the-clock patrol in region.

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While 24 people, including two police officers, were killed by knife-wielding rioters, state media said cops shot dead 11rioters in the Lukqun Township in Shanshan County in the region’s Turpan Prefecture.

Among the victims of the rioting, 16 were from the Uyghur ethnic group who follow Islam. The government, however, did not divulge the ethnicity of those killed by the cops.

On Sunday, a government statement said police had captured a fugitive rioter, Yiblayan Eli, who was part of the 17-member group that plotted and then attacked police stations, a local government building, a construction site, a private store and a hair salon, as well as set fire to police cars on Wednesday.