Thaindian News

Beijing, Aug 1 (IANS) China Monday blamed terrorists trained in Pakistan for an attack in its Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that left six dead and 15 injured.

State-run Xinhua news agency said a group of religious extremists led by “culprits trained in overseas terrorist camps” were behind the weekend attack on civilians in China’s far-western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The initial probe has shown that the heads of the group had learned skills of making explosives and firearms in overseas camps of the terrorist group “East Turkistan Islamic Movement” (ETIM) in Pakistan before entering Xinjiang to organise terrorist activities, the government of Kashgar City said in an online statement.

Six civilians were killed and 15 people, including three policemen, were injured after attackers set fire to a restaurant and went on rampage on civilians in Kashgar Sunday. Five suspects were shot dead by police.

The government Monday also issued arrest warrants on two suspects who fled the scene.

The two were identified as 29-year-old Memtieli Tiliwaldi and 34-year-old Turson Hasan. Both are local ethnic Uygurs and have primary school education.

The police offered 100,000 yuan ($15,384) for information leading to the arrest of any of the two.

Sunday’s attack was the second incident of violence in Kashgar over the weekend. On Saturday night, two people hijacked a truck after killing the driver and drove into the crowd. The suspects then jumped out of the truck and hacked bystanders.

Eight civilians were killed and 27 injured. One of the suspects was killed in the clash while the other was apprehended.

The local government did not specifically call Saturday’s violence a terrorist attack.