The move will add more than 250 auxiliary officers to patrol neighborhoods and staff checkpoints on the roads.<\/p>\n
2017-03-07<\/p>\n
Rushing to tighten security following a deadly knife attack in February, officials in Xinjiang\u2019s Hotan prefecture have launched a drive to recruit additional auxiliary police officers, meanwhile working those already employed around the clock, sources in the region say.<\/p>\n
The Feb. 15 attack by three Uyghurs in a residential area of Guma (in Chinese, Pishan) county in Hotan (Hetian) left five passersby dead and another five injured, with the attackers themselves shot dead by police, according to state media reports.<\/p>\n
The attack appears to have been motivated by anger at threats by local officials to punish the attackers for praying with their family, an activity outlawed by authorities in an effort to restrict Muslim religious practice in northwest China\u2019s Xinjiang region, sources told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 16, authorities in nearby Keriye (Yutian) county announced a move to add 254 additional auxiliary members to its police force, with 204 jobs reserved for ethnic Uyghurs and 50 spaces held for Han Chinese, local media reports said.<\/p>\n
Speaking to RFA, a police officer in Keriye\u2019s Kokyar township confirmed the recruitment drive was under way.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than 200 [auxiliary] policemen will be recruited soon to patrol the roads, streets, and neighborhoods day and night,\u201d RFA\u2019s source said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will also be stationed at various checkpoints to check people coming into the township and other townships in the county.\u201d<\/p>\n
Political requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n New recruits must be between 18 and 30 years of age and come from families with no \u201cpolitical problems,\u201d the source said, adding, \u201cThe political requirements for the job are very strict.\u201d<\/p>\n Divided into two groups and required to work for 48 hours straight, recruits will be allowed only a one-hour break in which to eat their lunch, he said. <\/p>\n Each officer will also closely monitor the behavior of five persons already picked out for police attention, the source said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe atmosphere has become very tense now following the Guma attack, and since social stability is our main priority, we are remaining very vigilant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not sure when all this is going to end.”<\/p>\n Police booths made from steel and set up in Keriye county\u2019s Siyek township now guard the main entrance to the town and a highway leading to other areas in the county, sources in Siyek said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been four months since I began working in the booth,\u201d one auxiliary policeman in Siyek told RFA.<\/p>\n \u201cWe check passersby, and at night we inspect the homes of suspect people or houses that have their lights on. Besides that, we look at cars and motorcycles that have been parked along the road.\u201d<\/p>\n Officers exhausted<\/strong><\/p>\n Dressed in SWAT team uniforms, auxiliary officers go unarmed, though some carry batons and spears, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe now work for 48 hours continuously without a break, and when we reach the point where we can\u2019t continue due to exhaustion, we take turns sleeping for about two to three hours.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe used to have a Uyghur supervisor who was good to us, and when we had emergencies, he would give us permission to leave. But now we have a [Han] Chinese supervisor, and we can\u2019t talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation has gotten so intense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n China has vowed to crack down on what it calls religious extremism in Xinjiang, and regularly conducts \u201cstrike hard\u201d campaigns including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.<\/p>\n While China blames Uyghur extremists for terrorist attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.<\/p>\n Reported by Eset Sulaiman 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 will add more than 250 auxiliary officers to patrol neighborhoods and staff checkpoints on the roads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3492","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\/3492","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=3492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3492"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}