Authorities in northwestern China have cordoned off an area twice the size of New York City as their hunt for the perpetrators of one of the region\u2019s deadliest ever attacks enters its fourth week.<\/p>\n
Tom Mitchell in Aksu and Christian Shepherd in Beijing
October 11, 2015 6:59 am<\/p>\n
Authorities in northwestern China have cordoned off an area twice the size of New York City as their hunt for the perpetrators of one of the region\u2019s deadliest ever attacks enters its fourth week.<\/p>\n
Residents of Baicheng county in Xinjiang province say that at least 60 people, most of them migrant coal miners from across the country, were knifed to death in a September 18 attack on the Sogan coal mine.<\/p>\n
Most of Baicheng\u2019s residents are Muslim Uighurs, a small number of whom have taken up arms against a government they believe is deliberately eroding<\/a> their religious and cultural heritage by encouraging a wave of Han Chinese migration.<\/p>\n Xinjiang has long been a strategic priority for the Chinese government because of its natural resources, including the country\u2019s largest coal reserves, and its proximity to even bigger energy sources in Central Asia. It is also a key component of President Xi Jinping\u2019s \u201cNew Silk Road\u201d strategy, aimed at enhancing Eurasian infrastructure links.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than 60 people were killed at the mine,\u201d one Baicheng resident told the Financial Times by telephone. \u201cMilitary helicopters and drones are still searching the mountains for the attackers.\u201d<\/p>\n The person asked not to be named, citing warnings from local officials: \u201cThey said we shouldn\u2019t embarrass China and Baicheng by talking to foreign journalists. But I think they are really worried that they will be punished for incompetence if too much information gets out. How can they not have caught anyone after such a big attack?\u201d<\/p>\n The helicopters and drones are operating out of the airport at Aksu, the largest city in the area. Police have established checkpoints on all roads leading to Baicheng, which covers an area of about 16,000 sq km. Heavily armed police are posted behind sandbag bunkers at each road block, providing cover for their colleagues who perform identification and weapons checks on all people entering the area.<\/p>\n An FT reporter was turned back at one of the checkpoints on Saturday. \u201cYou can\u2019t go to Baicheng or the coal mine because of the counter-terrorism operation,\u201d one police officer said. He declined to comment further on last month\u2019s attack<\/a>, which was first reported by Radio Free Asia\u2019s Uighur-language service, or the continuing search. According to RFA, last month\u2019s victims included at least five police officers who responded to the incident.<\/p>\n Despite the information blackout, the attack is the talk of Aksu, where residents speculate that the death toll may exceed 100.<\/p>\n The deadliest known outbreak of intercommunal tensions in Xinjiang occurred in 2009 in the region\u2019s capital, Urumqi, when mob violence claimed the lives of 197 people, most of them Han Chinese.<\/p>\n Organised attacks on symbols of the state, especially police stations, have been common for years in Xinjiang. But beginning in March last year, alleged Uighur \u201cseparatists\u201d began to deliberately target civilians in well coordinated assaults, at a train station in the city of Kunming in southwestern China, and a food market in Urumqi.<\/p>\n