BEIJING, China -Police in the desert city of Hotan ‘gunned down' several rioters who attacked a police station, Xinhua said yesterday, the worst violence Xinjiang has experienced in about a year.A clash at a police station that left at least four people dead in western China's restive Xinjiang region was a terrorist attack, a government official said, but an exile Uighur group accused police of firing on peaceful protesters.
- But a Germany-based exile group, World Uighur Congress, disputed the official account. It said 20 Uighurs were killed — 14 beaten to death and six shot dead — and 70 arrested when police opened fire on a peaceful protest, leading to fighting.
- The two accounts could not be independently resolved yesterday. Beijing, wary of instability and the threat to the Communist Party's grip on power, often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets, saying they work with Al Qaida or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.
- "It is certain that it was a terrorist attack," Hou Hanmin, chief of the regional information office, told Reuters by telephone. "But as for which organisation is behind this, we are still investigating. The number of people killed and casualties will be announced soon."
Many Uyghurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to the region, chafe under rule from Beijing and restrictions on their language, culture and religion. They make up less than half of Xinjiang's population after decades of immigration by the majority Han.
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