A Uighur judicial official and five Han Chinese businessmen have been murdered in separate incidents in the western Xinjiang region of China, local officials said this week, blaming a group of ethnic Uighur suspects for the brutal slayings.Nurmemet Rozi, the director of a township level justice department, was killed on July 18 when he was tracking down Uighurs who had attended special prayers during Ramadan at a village mosque in Aktokay township in Uchturpan (in Chinese, Wushi) county in Xinjiang's Aksu prefecture. The five Han Chinese businessmen were stabbed to death after the suspects waylaid their car in Aksu city on July 12, the officials said.
Chinese state media has not reported the two incidents so far, possibly to prevent the suspects from fleeing the prefecture or to avoid publicity that could deter Han Chinese from taking jobs in Xinjiang.