Agencies
Beijing: The recent attacks in China's Muslim Uygur majority Xinjiang province that left 35 people dead were "carefully planned" and did not target any particular ethnic group, according to a captured militant. "We were assigned different tasks in the attack. Mine was to attack the police station from the front entrance," said Wulayin Ali, the only surviving member of a 16-member group that carried out attacks on a police station and surrounding areas at in Lukqun township, Turpan prefecture recently. The attack started with an assault on a police station. The group killed 24 people, including two police officers, two assistant officers and two women. Sixteen of the dead were ethnic Uygurs. Eleven attackers were killed by security forces while five others, including Wulayin, were captured.
31-year-old Wulayin, who escaped the scene of the attack, was arrested four days later, police said. He is now being treated for a minor head wound sustained from a bullet.
"We took an oath and gave each other hugs to say goodbye before the attack. We didn't plan on who we would target. It could be police officers, Uygurs, Han Chinese and women," Wulayin, who was shown on state-run CCTV, said. Together with another member of the group, Wulayin is alleged to have killed Memetjon Nimar, 43, who owned the Unity Hotel, opposite the police station, and another passer-by.
He said he believed that by carrying out the attack, he would go to heaven, where he could drink alcohol freely and would be surrounded by angels, according to the China Daily.
Police said initial investigations show that the group, headed by Ahmatniyaz Sidiq and EliAhmatniyaz, both from Lukqun, had been watching videos and listening to audio programmes from the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) which is fighting for separation of Xinjiang from China. Chinese officials claim it is affiliated to al Qaeda.
Uygurs, a community of Turkik origin, are against the increasing settlements of the majority Han Chinese community in restive Xinjiang, which borders Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. About 200 people were killed in riots in 2009 and scores killed in numerous attacks carried by militants subsequently. Before the latest attack, two members of the group from Kuqa county in southern Xinjiang mobilisd the gang to carry out a jihad operation, the daily quoted Wulayin as saying. Earlier, official media reports here said a number of Uygurs were being trained in militants camps in Pakistan to fight in Syria.
On June 20, Wulayin and some other members said that they wanted to "start a jihad and do something big". They identified the town's police station and special patrol squadron as their initial targets, followed by government buildings and residents, the daily quoted police as saying.
The group raised funds and purchased 26 long knives, 21 daggers and 310 lts of gasoline from which they made 28 petrol bombs. They then conducted scouting missions around the government building, the police station and other locations. Their plans were disrupted after one member of the gang was arrested a day before attack. Ahmatniyaz feared that the arrest might compromise the gang and decided to carry out the attack with rest of the group the next day. |
