Beijing : Six militants suspected to be suicide bombers were killed on Monday by police in China’s volatile violence-torn Xinjiang province, which is in the grip of attacks staged by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, PTI reports.
The clash was triggered when residents of Shule county in the province noticed “a suspicious person carrying an explosive device”.
They called the police, who opened fire after the attacker tried to assault an officer with an axe and detonate the device, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Another five attackers attempted to ignite explosive devices attached to their bodies while the policemen were attempting to deal with the “suspect”.
They were also killed by the policemen on spot, it said.
No casualties of police or civilians were reported.
Also a minibus with explosive devices was spotted at the site, it said.
Xinjiang borders Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Afghanistan experienced increased violent attacks by the banned ETIM group whose pronounced aim is to fight for a separate Xinjiang.
China has launched massive crackdown which was intensified last year to deal with the threat posed by ETIM, an al-Qaeda backed outfit which reportedly had bases in Pakistan’s tribal areas. ETIM became active in Xinjiang which has a population of 11 million ethnic Uygur Muslims.
The province witnessed riots for several years following Uygur resentment about increasing settlements of Hans from other provinces.
K J M Varma
