The move appears aimed at discouraging use of the tools as weapons in terrorist attacks in the volatile region.<\/p>\n
2017-01-13<\/p>\n
Authorities in an ethnic Uyghur county of northwest China\u2019s Xinjiang region have ordered that all tools used for cutting must be registered with police, with the user\u2019s ID number engraved on the blade of each tool in an apparent bid to discourage its use as a weapon, sources say.<\/p>\n
The Jan. 8 order issued in Aksu (in Chinese, Akesu) prefecture\u2019s Onsu (Wensu) county covers pocket knives and butcher\u2019s knives, axes, adzes, scissors, and other bladed tools, with compliance demanded by Jan. 10, sources told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already finished,\u201d one Onsu resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 11 tools, including scissors and axes. My husband\u2019s ID number was engraved on them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Onsu police department designated a place to do this in every neighborhood, so we took our tools there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole county is doing this,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we had all our bladed tools engraved with our ID number,\u201d a second Aksu resident said. \u201cWe used my father\u2019s ID number to have this done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reached for comment, an Onsu county township police officer confirmed the order had been given.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know where to do this, though. The police officer responsible for stability maintenance knows where tools should be taken to be registered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
China has vowed to crack down on what it calls the \u201cthree evils\u201d of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism in Xinjiang, but experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from Uyghur \u201cseparatists\u201d and that domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence that has left hundreds dead since 2012.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 18, 2015, a group of knife-wielding suspects attacked security guards and workers at a Chinese coal mine in Asku\u2019s Bay (Baicheng) county, killing some 50 mostly Han Chinese mine employees. Nearly 50 others were injured in the attack.<\/p>\n
Rights groups accuse the Chinese authorities of heavy-handed rule in Xinjiang, including violent police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people.<\/p>\n
Reported by Eset Sulaiman and Jilil Kashgary for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The move appears aimed at discouraging use of the tools as weapons in terrorist attacks in the volatile region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3326","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\/3326","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=3326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3326"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}