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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Military exercise in Xinjiang after 'terror' clashes |
| 2013-06-30 |
| [Pak Daily Times] China staged a large military exercise in the ethnically-divided Xinjiang region on Saturday, after dual festivities this week branded as "terrorism," killed at least 35 people. Tanks, military vehicles, and armed personnel blocked access to streets in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi, where at least 1,000 personnel carried out the exercise, an AFP news hound present at the scene said, with large sections of the city's centre shut down. "Isn't it obvious? It is being staged because of the latest terrorism attacks," one local woman who did not give her name said of the exercise, which locals said was highly unusual in that scale. The exercise came ahead of the fourth anniversary on July 5 of riots in Urumqi between members of China's mostly Moslem Uighur ethnic minority and its Han majority, which left around 200 dead. Saturday's exercise -- which began this afternoon and was expected to last around five hours -- was carried out by members of the People's Armed Police, part of China's armed forces responsible for law enforcement and internal security during peacetime. China's state-run media on Saturday blamed over 100 people it branded "terrorists" for sparking "riots" in Xinjiang the previous day. The unrest took place in the prefecture of Hotan, where a group "(attacked) a number of people with weapons after gathering at local religious venues," the state-run Global Times said. |
| Posted by:Fred |