Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

China steps up probe into knife massacre at Xinjiang mine

BEIJING — The authorities in north-western China have cordoned off an area twice the size of New York City as their hunt for the perpetrators of one of the region’s deadliest-ever attacks enters its fourth week.

BEIJING — The authorities in north-western China have cordoned off an area twice the size of New York City as their hunt for the perpetrators of one of the region’s deadliest-ever attacks enters its fourth week.

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 Sept 18 attack on the Sogan coal mine.

Most of Baicheng’s residents are Muslim Uighurs, a small number of whom have taken up arms against a government they believe is deliberately eroding their religious and cultural heritage by encouraging a wave of Han Chinese migration.

Xinjiang has long been a strategic priority for the Chinese government because of its natural resources, including the country’s largest coal reserves, and its proximity to even bigger energy sources in Central Asia. It is also a key component of President Xi Jinping’s “New Silk Road” strategy, aimed at enhancing Eurasian infrastructure links.

“More than 60 people were killed at the mine,” one Baicheng resident told the Financial Times. “Military helicopters and drones are still searching the mountains for the attackers.”

The person asked not to be named, citing warnings from local officials: “They said we shouldn’t 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?”

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 some 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.

An FT reporter was turned back at one of the checkpoints on Saturday. “You can’t go to Baicheng or the coal mine because of the counter-terrorism operation,” one police officer said. He declined to comment further on last month’s attack, which was first reported by Radio Free Asia’s (RFA’s)Uighur-language service, or the continuing search. RFA said last month’s victims included at least five police officers who responded to the incident.

Despite the information blackout, the attack is the talk of Aksu, where residents speculate that the death toll may exceed 100. The deadliest known outbreak of intercommunal tensions in Xinjiang occurred in 2009 in the region’s capital, Urumqi, when mob violence claimed the lives of 197 people, most of them Han Chinese.

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 “separatists” 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.

Last month’s Baicheng massacre would appear to fit this pattern as most of the victims were migrant coal miners, but it is also possible that apparently sectarian-motivated attacks in Xinjiang could instead stem from disputes over pollution or land.

“A number of these (recent) incidents have differed from previous ones in that they seemed to target civilians and involved a degree of planning,” said Mr Nick Holdstock, who has written several books about Xinjiang. “But we should be careful not to assume people in different regions in Xinjiang share the same grievances simply because of their shared ethnicity. The concerns of Uighur businessmen may not be the same as Uighur farmers.”

The Chinese government claims that shadowy terrorist groups and religious extremists are responsible for much of the violence. FINANCIAL TIMES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.