Man stabs 6 then kills himself in China’s Xinjiang: report
Originally published by AFP,19 Apr 2011
BEIJING — A man stabbed and wounded six people in China’s restive northwestern region of Xinjiang before slitting his own throat and dying, state media reported on Tuesday.
The attacker was aged in his 20s and armed with a knife and scissors when he stabbed six passersby, including a middle school student, in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, Xinhua news agency said.
After being surrounded by police he slashed his throat three times and died, it said. The report quoted police saying “five bottles suspected to contain marijuana” were found on the assailant.
The incident was the latest in a series of violent attacks in recent years in Xinjiang, whose Muslim ethnic Uighur population has long chafed under Chinese rule.
All six victims were sent to hospital. The student was seriously hurt, Xinhua said.
The report provided no further details on the assailant’s identity, ethnicity, or a possible motive.
Xinjiang has been hit in recent years by numerous violent attacks typically directed at police.
Many of the region’s Uighurs accuse China of oppression and discrimination against them in education and employment and also resent a recent influx of migrants from China’s majority Han ethnic group.
In July 2009, Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi was rocked by vicious violence pitting Uighurs against Han in China’s worst ethnic unrest in decades.
Nearly 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured, the government said.
China has blamed unrest in the region on “terrorists” and “separatists” but provided no evidence of any organised campaign.