Dead from Feb. 17 clash include four police and four bystanders hit by indiscriminate police gunfire<\/p>\n
2015-02-20<\/p>\n
A clash in China\u2019s northwestern Xinjiang region killed 17 members of the country’s Uyghur minority, including four policemen who were slashed with knives, nine attackers who were shot to death and four people killed by police gunfire, officials and witnesses said.<\/p>\n
The Feb. 17 incident in Aksu (In Chinese, Akesu) prefecture came during house-to-house searches by police, who were attacked by a group of more than 10 people gathered in a house 150 meters from the police station in the town of Yaqaeriq. (Yingairike) in Bay (Baicheng) county.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they entered the house, there were 10 or so people in the house. The chief ordered them to disperse, at this point they rushed all together and snatched the rifle and handgun from Qasim Imir\u2019s hand, then slashed him with the knifes and axes,\u201d Yaqaeriq Deputy Mayor Turdahun Tohti told RFA\u2019s Uyghur service. Qasim Imir was the police chief of the town.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the rest of the police were auxiliary police they did not have guns, so they ran for their lives, and the suspects chased them. When they closed up on them as they approached the police station, the armed police stationed there came out and started shooting,\u201d Tohti added.<\/p>\n
The showdown ended with Imir and three auxiliary police dead from knife and axe wounds, nine suspects shot to death by police and four passersby who were hit by police gunfire, he said.<\/p>\n
Among the slain passersby were a man named Qul, head of the local hospital, and his daughter who, Tohti said, \u201cran so they were confused with the suspects and police shot them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two local farmers were also mistakenly shot dead by police, he said.<\/p>\n
Strike hard campaign<\/strong><\/p>\n A Yaqaeriq policeman name Yaqupjan told RFA that \u201cmost of the guys who were in the house were family members of those who were arrested and sentenced during last year\u2019s strike hard campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n China has in recent years launched a series of \u201cstrike hard\u201d campaigns in Xinjiang in the name of the fight against separatism, religious extremism and terrorism. The targets of these campaigns, the minority Turkic-speaking, Muslim Uyghurs, complain of pervasive ethnic discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression by China\u2019s communist government.<\/p>\n \u201cThe good thing is that they did not know how to use the guns,\u201d Yaqupjan said of the group of men who snatched firearms away from the police chief. \u201cIf they did, all of us might be dead.\u201d<\/p>\n Two of the assailants, listed on arrest warrants as Azadem Nur and Abliz Abla, escaped with a firearm, the policeman said.<\/p>\n Omer Imin, head of number 3 village in the township, said two of the dead suspects were female and two of the men killed by police were younger brothers of men jailed last year and were closely watched on a list of \u201cfocused families.\u201d<\/p>\n Uyghurs say they chafe under strict police scrutiny and controls on their movements and violent clashes with police are not uncommon. <\/p>\n \u201cThe strike hard policy exceeds the prescribed limits,\u201d said a worker in Bay county, who spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example a farmer who helped tend his jailed friend\u2019s corn field was sentenced to three years as a \u2018terrorist.\u2019 He does not even know why he was sentenced,\u201d the worker told RFA.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now everybody is living in fear. There is no guarantee that they will not be arrested on bogus charges as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Reported by RFA\u2019s Uyghur service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written by Paul Eckert.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dead from Feb. 17 clash include four police and four bystanders hit by indiscriminate police gunfire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}