China identifies suspects of Xinjiang suicide bombing
SHA HA Reuters — hinese police have identified five suspects who carried out a suicide bombing in the deadliest attack in the country’s restive injiang region in years, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The report said 39 people were killed from the bombing on Thursday morning at a vegetable market in Urum i in far western hina, home to a large Muslim Uighur minority.
Police have identified the suspects as urahmat Ablipi , Memet Memtimin, Raghimjan Memet, Memtimin Mahmat and Ablet Abdukadir, Xinhua said late on Friday. They all appear to be Uighur, judging by their names.
The five, influenced by religious extremism, took part in illegal religious activities, watched and listened to terrorist violence video and audio materials, the report said citing the police.
Thursday’s bombing was the second suicide attack in the capital in just over three weeks. A bomb and knife attack at an Urum i train station in April killed a bystander and wounded 79.
hina has launched a one- year crackdown to hunt down and punish terrorists in injiang to “focus on terrorists and religious extremist groups, gun and explosive manufacturing dens and terrorist training camps, state media reported on Friday.
The government had already launched a campaign to strike hard against terrorism in injiang, blaming slamists and separatists for the worsening violence in the resource-rich western region bordering central Asia. At least 180 people have been killed in attacks across hina over the past year.
xiles and rights groups say the real cause of the unrest in injiang is hina’s heavy-handed policies, including curbs on slam and the culture of Uighurs, Muslims who speak a Turkic language.
The Uighurs have long complained of official discrimination in favor of the Han people, hina’s majority ethnic group.
The five suspects of Thursday’s bombing formed a five-member terrorist gang at the end of 2013 and made explosive devices and chose the target for their attack, Xinhua said.
The attackers ploughed two vehicles into an open market in Urum i and hurled explosives. Many of the 94 wounded were elderly shoppers, according to witnesses.