At least 31 people were killed and 94 others injured on Thursday in China’s bloodiest terrorist attack at a busy market in Urumqi, provincial capital of the restive Xinjiang province, when militants rammed two explosive-laden vehicles into a crowd and set off over a dozen blasts.
The two vehicles, without licence plates, broke through roadside fences and ploughed into people at an open air market at Park North Street near Renmin Park at 7.50 am (local time) and the occupants set off explosive devices, the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region’s Government said in a statement.
Witnesses said explosives were thrown before the vehicles exploded. Many of the injured were elderly people who frequently visited the morning market, according to witnesses.
A business owner in the market told State-run Xinhua news agency that he heard a dozen big blasts. This was by far the biggest attack suspected to have been carried out by the banned East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) fighting for the independence of Xinjiang, the sprawling province bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Afghanistan.
In response to Thursday’s attack, President Xi Jinping pledged to severely punish terrorists and spare no efforts in maintaining stability and directed the local authorities to solve the case quickly, put the injured under proper care and offer condolences to families of the victims.
A work panel led by Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun has headed for Xinjiang to join the investigation. All the injured were rushed to hospitals.
The Regional Government has launched an emergency response system and organised medical efforts for treatment of the injured, said the statement.
Observers say that scale of Thursday’s attacks showed ETIM, stated to be an al-Qaeda-backed outfit is gaining ground in Xinjiang taking advantage of the anger of native Uighur Muslim militants over Han Chinese settlements.
Xinjiang has witnessed riots between Uighurs and Han settlers from outside the province. The Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking community, resent the settlements as they believe the large scale migration is marginalising them in their own homeland.
A breakfast vendor told Xinhua he saw the two SUVs headinginto the street at a high speed and hitting people at random.
A jogger said he saw flags on the vehicles, with a white background and black characters which “seemed like Uighur writing”.
The Chinese Government will continue to work hard in fighting terrorism and try its best to safeguard social stability, he said. In a statement, Public Security Chief Meng Jianzhu vowed to “destroy the arrogance of violent terrorists”.
Thursday’s blasts came a day after sentencing of 39 people for up to 15 years of imprisonment for inciting violence in Xinjiang in the last two months.
State television announced security has been stepped up in Beijing with deployment of more police forces who were directed to respond to any emergency with in a minute.
Besides armed forces, four helicopters have been deployed. Similar security measures have been taken in almost all parts of the country. Soon after the explosions, two flights to Urumqi were diverted for security reasons.
The flights from Shanghai to Urumqi, at Nanjing and lanzhou were delayed for security checks, Xinhua reported.
Significantly, Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain who met his Chinese counterpart Xi in Shanghai on Thursday promised to step up crackdown against “East Turkestan” forces said to be operating from Pakistan’s tribal areas.
This was a rare admission by Pakistan about East Turkestan forces, which China equates with the ETIM. Hussain said the “East Turkestan” terrorist forces are a common enemy of Pakistan and China and vowed to make joint efforts with China to combat the terrorists. The two Presidents agreed to strengthen counter terrorism cooperation.
“Pakistan will take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and projects in the country, Hussain said apparently referring to the abduction of a Chinese national by the Taliban some days ago. Hussain is in Shanghai to attend the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).