Chinese police shot dead six people suspected of involvement in a wave of violence in the far western region of Xinjiang as an exile group claimed they were killed after surrendering. Police launched an operation to arrest nine people late Friday after a series of attacks in August killed 33 people and threatened to overshadow the Olympic Games. Xinjiang – an isolated region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations – is home to China’s ethnic minority Uighurs, who say they are repressed by the Chinese government. China has long said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang. Police encountered nine suspects in a corn field near the city of Kashgar on Friday night, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The suspects had knives and tried to resist arrest, putting up a “desperate struggle” and wounding one policeman. Three wounded suspects were arrested, it said. One of the three captured suspects later died in a hospital as did a local militia man who was wounded, the People’s Daily newspaper said on its Web site Sunday.
CHINESE POLICE KILL UIGHURS
Chinese police shot dead six people suspected of involvement in a wave of violence in the far western region of Xinjiang as an exile group claimed they were killed after surrendering.