Region’s residents bear scars of terrorist attacks

Trauma persists from extremist violence that took place more than half a decade ago

Survivors and relatives of the victims of terrorist attacks in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region said on Nov 17 that they hope people will never again have to experience the horror and lifelong pain they live with.

“Being able to live without constant fear of a terrorist attack is the greatest desire for Xinjiang people,” said Dilqamar Tucson, who lost her right leg in a terrorist attack in Luntai county, Bayingolin Mongolian autonomous prefecture, on Sept 21, 2014.

The attack killed 10 people, including two police officers and two assistant police, and injured 54. It was only one of thousands of bloody terrorist attacks in Xinjiang from 1990 to 2016.

Dilqamar burst into tears during a news conference on Xinjiang-related issues when she recalled how a shopping trip turned into an enduring nightmare.

“I remember seeing my right leg torn apart in an explosion launched by a group of terrorists and hearing people’s desperate cries for help,” she said.

“Those moments still haunt me. The terrorists have ruined my life.”

Determined to protect people’s lives, the regional government has taken a series of measures to fight terrorism since 2014.

As a result, no terrorist incident has taken place in Xinjiang for about five years.

“As a survivor and witness of a terrorist attack, I really cherish the stable and peaceful social environment,” Dilqamar said.

“I hope it can stay that way so people will never suffer as I do.”

Zhang Lihua said the last words her husband said to her were “stay in the truck no matter what” before he was brutally killed by a group of terrorists in Shache county, Kashgar prefecture, on July 28, 2014. The attack claimed 37 lives and injured 13.

Zhang and her husband from Changchun, Jilin province, were passing through the county while transporting more than 100 livestock when they were ambushed by terrorists. An attacker dragged her husband out of the truck while she was hiding inside.

“I then saw my husband lying in a pool of blood under the truck after the police rescued me. When I touched his body, it was cold,” Zhang said in tears.

“I could never understand how the terrorists can act so brutally to innocent people. No one deserves to go through such horror.”

Regional government spokesman Xu Guixiang said frequent terrorist attacks have become a thing of the past in Xinjiang, where terrorists have been punished harshly in accordance with the law.

“Fighting extremism and terrorism that had been spreading in Xinjiang for many years is a long-term mission,” Xu said. “Being able to prevent terrorist attacks in the past five years has proved that Xinjiang’s counterterrorism measures are on the right track.”