Thursday, August 19, 2010

Chinese Uighur Muslim Attacks Security Checkpoint With Explosive-laden Vehicle, 7 Chinese Security Police Killed


Now, I've read this story about 3 times and I still can't figure out how a Chinese muslim rams his 3 wheeler, which is loaded up with explosives, into a police security checkpoint and kills 7 Chinese security officers yet the attacker lived through it and was arrested??? I must be missing something here.

But the fact of the matter is that this is one of the more deadly attacks in China in quite some time and a reminder to the Chinese government that their muslim population in the Xinjiang just aren't liking Chinese life and want their own muslim area.

From the report at Reuters via Breitbart:


Seven Chinese military police were killed on Thursday when a member of the Uighur minority rammed them with an explosives-laden vehicle in the Xinjiang border region, long the scene of ethnic tension and violence.
Police arrested a Uighur suspect who drove the motorized three-wheel vehicle into a group of police and paramilitary guards at a highway intersection in Yiganqi township near the city of Aksu, according to a report from a local news conference carried on the People's Daily website.

Fourteen other people were injured in Thursday's attack, Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin told a group of foreign journalists visiting the regional capital, Urumqi.
She did not say what the motive for the attack might be.
Beijing often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets, saying they work with al Qaeda or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.
One day I was having a conversation with someone about islamic terror in the world and I started listing all of the countries of this planet that had been touched by the terrorist activities of muslims and when I got to "China", this person didn't believe me - well, he was wrong then and obviously this is more evidence. As is usually the case in a Reuters article, the word "muslim" is pretty much washed from this article but don't let that fool you - these Uighurs are muslim fanatics and this will not be there last attack.

It will be interesting if the Chinese follow Putin's lead and do nothing or if they will bring in the cleansing crew and make the Uighurs pay for this. The latter, I certainly hope.



Attack on military police kills 7 in Xinjiang, China


China (Reuters) - Seven Chinese military police were killed on Thursday when a member of the Uighur minority rammed them with an explosives-laden vehicle in the Xinjiang border region, long the scene of ethnic tension and violence.

Police arrested a Uighur suspect who drove the motorized three-wheel vehicle into a group of police and paramilitary guards at a highway intersection in Yiganqi township near the city of Aksu, according to a report from a local news conference carried on the People's Daily website.

It was the first such attack in China since 2008.

In separate incidents during the Olympic Games in Beijing, Uighur attackers killed police at a border checkpoint near Pakistan and rammed a truck into a group of paramilitary police in the southern Xinjiang city of Kashgar.

Fourteen other people were injured in Thursday's attack, Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin told a group of foreign journalists visiting the regional capital, Urumqi.

She did not say what the motive for the attack might be.

Beijing often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets, saying they work with al Qaeda or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.

"Xinjiang's development will not be affected by a small group of bad people. The overall situation in Xinjiang is good," Hou told the news conference for foreign reporters on a pre-arranged trip to the region.

"I repeat what our governor said this morning: hostile elements are always there, in the past, present and in the future. They don't target any particular ethnic group since casualties are also minorities. They are the common enemy of the Xinjiang people."

Many Uighurs -- a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to the region -- chafe under rule from Beijing and restrictions on their language, culture and religion.

They now make up less than half of Xinjiang's population after decades of immigration by the majority Han from other parts of China.

TENSIONS EASED

In July last year, Urumqi was convulsed by deadly ethnic unrest after a protest by Uighurs gave way to street killings and riots that killed at least 197 people, most of them Han Chinese. Han Chinese launched revenge attacks two days later.

Both Uighur and Han residents said tensions have now eased in Urumqi, with Han crediting an increased security presence. Residents pack bars and public squares on warm summer nights while military trucks still patrol Uighur neighborhoods.

Uighur exiles accuse China of whipping up the threat posed by armed separatists to justify harsh crackdowns in Xinjiang.

In June, the government said it had broken up a "terrorist" cell planning attacks in the cities of Kashgar, Hotan and Aksu.

China has promised to plough 110 billion yuan ($16.20 billion) in investment into major projects in oil-and-coal rich Xinjiang, located on China's Central Asian and Pakistan borders.

Money has been earmarked for the relatively poorer southern part of Xinjiang, heavily populated by Uighurs, to try to soothe income disparities that have contributed to ethnic violence.

"It's true that for historic and natural development reasons, Xinjiang has seen unbalanced development, especially the three prefectures of Southern Xinjiang," governor Nur Bekri told reporters earlier in the day.

"We will make southern Xinjiang a focal point."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, it ain't the luck o' the Irish.