The imam of the biggest mosque in China’s western Xinjiang region was killed after morning prayers early on Wednesday in continuing violence to hit the Muslim-majority frontier region, officials have said..
Jume Tahir, the 79 year-old imam of the Id Kah – a more than 500-year-old mosque that sits at the centre of the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, in Xinjiang’s far west and is one of the region’s most important mosques – was attacked by suspects armed with knives and axes.
Tahir, from Xinjiang’s native Uighur ethnic minority group, was the government-appointed imam at the mosque.
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Local authorities said the attack was “organised” and carried out by extremists, adding that two suspects had been shot dead and a third captured.
Tahir was killed at 6.58 am on Wednesday shortly after prayers, the official Xinhua news agency quoted local public security, or police, authorities as saying.
Authorities said the two suspects had been shot dead later for resisting arrest with knives and axes at noon, a few hours after the killing.
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Three suspects were named as Turghun Tursun, Memetjan Remutillan and Nurmemet Abidilimit, who are all Uighurs. Officials said they were “influenced by religious extremism” and “planned to do something big to increase their influence”.
The killing comes days after dozens of people were reported killed in violence in Yarkand (Shache county in Chinese), as a mob reportedly attacked local government offices. Several people were shot dead by police following the clash, local authorities said, although no details regarding the casualties have been put out by the authorities.
Tahir, who served on the National People’s Congress (NPC), the top legislative body, was the most prominent Uighur religious leader seen as supportive of official religious policies.
During an NPC session in 2010, he warned of “hostile forces” having “never stopped secessionist activities" in Xinjiang and reaffirmed the government’s tight religious policies in Xinjiang.
Tahir and other State-supported religious leaders had, however, come under criticism from many Uighurs for backing controversial policies such as bans on Uighur civil servants and students from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.