Fifteen people were killed and 14 were injured in Shache County in China’s Xinjiang region on Friday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, when a group of people threw explosive devices and stabbed people after driving into a street full of food stalls. Eleven of those killed were “mobsters,” Xinhua said.
The battle to counter extremism has accelerated in the province after authorities decided to protect residential communities in its capital Urumqi.
China has stepped up its campaign to counter a separatist movement, which has carried out random attacks that have led to significant casualties, including several civilians. Stability in Xinjiang is critical as the region is major junction in the New Silk Road — a pet project of President Xi Jinping. It is also central to China from an energy security perspective as several gas pipelines, heading towards the industrial coastal heartland of China pass through this province.
In view of its strategic location, Chinese authorities have decided that Urumqi will, for the first time, recruit 3,000 ex-servicemen to protect residential communities, reported the Global Times — a newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party.
The daily said all soldiers under 30 who left the service this year and are “against separatism and illegal religious activities,” and have no criminal record, can apply for the job.
‘Situation getting worse’
“The situation in Xinjiang is getting worse, and the government needs more people to prevent further riots from happening,” the newspaper quoted Pan Zhiping, the director of the Research Institute of Central Asia at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, as saying.
China Daily reported on its website that the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang People’s Congress had passed a regulation prohibiting people from wearing or forcing others to wear clothes or logos associated with religious extremism. The measure was unanimously approved and is expected to come into force on January 1.
