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A serious violent clash occurred on April 23 in Bachu County of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region’s Kashi Prefecture. Fifteen community staff and police officers were attacked and killed after discovering suspicious individuals brandishing knives in the home of a local resident. During the violent exchange， six of the aggressors were shot dead and another eight were captured.
Day of Horror
Around 1：30 pm on April 23， three community workers in Selibuya Town of Bachu County conducted a routine visit to a local resident’s home. They discovered there a group of men watching video footage of overseas terrorist attacks and a large number of big knives. The workers reported the situation to their supervisors via cell phone， but were seized by several other men， whom they had failed to detect earlier. A backup team of police officers and community workers from the town rushed to the scene， but were attacked by the suspects， who also killed the three community workers they had seized earlier before setting the house on fire. Ten of the policemen and community workers killed were Uygurs， three were Han Chinese and two were ethnic Mongolians.
Selibuya Town plays host to the largest bazaar in southern Xinjiang. Its population is about 41，000， with 19，000 urban residents. Most are Uygurs. The town is roughly 84 kilometers from the seat of Bachu County and 260 kilometers from Kashi. “In vast Xinjiang， 200 kilometers is a mere stone’s throw，”said one driver in downtown Kashi.
Hou Hanmin， spokesperson for the regional government， told the Global Times that the killing showed features of a preplanned terrorist attack. The suspects were from one extended family， and their victims were of varied ethnicity. Attackers and victims all lived in the same neighborhood.
The clash was not about ethnic or religious issues， but rather was a heinous terrorist act designed to split the motherland and undermine national unity.
On the morning of April 29， Regional governor Nur Bekri said that the motivation behind the attack was not ethnic or religious. “It is a political fight between separatism and anti-separatism， and between safeguarding national unity and undermining that unity，” he said. “We will leave no room for compromises and concessions，” he stressed. He added the perpetrators would feel the full force of the law.
During the incident， Enwaer Ehet lost both his son and brother.
“My son was about to be married. His wedding ceremony was scheduled for April 25. And my brother’s two sons can hardly believe their father is dead； they’re in shock，” said Ehet. The remains of Ehet’s relatives were recovered from the house but were unrecognizable after the fire. Both were confirmed as victims after DNA verification.
Ren Changju， Selibuya’s chief of police， was also killed in the incident after expending all his ammunition. He killed one aggressor before being stabbed repeatedly. At a memorial service held in his honor， his wife Chen Lifang said： “All I want is to have him with us and watch him play with our son… Ren died doing his duty. He was a good policeman， a good husband and a good father. We will miss him.”
Combating Terrorism
Terrorism has occasionally struck Xinjiang， China’s western-most territory， which borders on Afghanistan， Pakistan， India and countries of the CIS. In the 1990s， bombs were set off on public buses in Urumqi， the region’s capital， killing three and injuring scores. Though knives were the weapons used in this most recent incident， the resulting carnage was no less severe.
“One characteristic of violent activities in Xinjiang is that terrorists use ‘cold weapons，’ such as knives. They always act in groups. Suicide bombings used to be rare， but over the past few years we have seen a worrying rise in such attacks in southern Xinjiang. With this latest incident， the fact that all suspects came from one family is both significant and worrying，” said Li Wei， director of the Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
International organizations have condemned recent attacks in Xinjiang as terrorism. They fulfil the definition of terrorism in that terror is used systematically as a means of coercion to achieve political goals. Many perpetrators associate with the “East Turkestan” movement that seeks to create a Uygur state through violent means. The separatist group was recognized as a terrorist organization by the Bush administration. More recently the Shanghai Cooperation Organization （SCO）， of which a number of Turkic states are members， condemned its activities.
At the SCO Ekaterinburg Summit in 2009， state leaders signed a convention on combating terrorism in a bid to enhance the legal foundations for anti-terrorism cooperation between member states and to raise the organization’s ability to fight across borders. The convention stipulated that any action to openly support or instigate terrorist attacks， any move to recruit personnel for terrorist attacks， and any attempt to participate in or fund terrorist activities is to be considered a hostile act.
According to Li Wei， the incident in Xinjiang in April fits all the criteria for terrorism. The assailants were extremists in ideology and sought destruction of the state through separatism. Terror was their means to achieve this goal.
As Xinjiang as a region has prospered in recent years， extremism， secessionism and terrorism have been on the wane. Li points out that attacks these days are carried out more in desperation at a lost cause than as a sign of increasing clout.
Li also said that signs of extremism in any one family are hard to detect. It is important for the local authorities to educate the general populace on how to spot increasingly radicalized behavior in their communities. They should also raise monetary rewards for reporting potential terrorist activities， improve monitoring efforts and enhance the ability to respond quickly to developing situations. Above all， further loss of life should be avoided at all costs.
Day of Horror
Around 1：30 pm on April 23， three community workers in Selibuya Town of Bachu County conducted a routine visit to a local resident’s home. They discovered there a group of men watching video footage of overseas terrorist attacks and a large number of big knives. The workers reported the situation to their supervisors via cell phone， but were seized by several other men， whom they had failed to detect earlier. A backup team of police officers and community workers from the town rushed to the scene， but were attacked by the suspects， who also killed the three community workers they had seized earlier before setting the house on fire. Ten of the policemen and community workers killed were Uygurs， three were Han Chinese and two were ethnic Mongolians.
Selibuya Town plays host to the largest bazaar in southern Xinjiang. Its population is about 41，000， with 19，000 urban residents. Most are Uygurs. The town is roughly 84 kilometers from the seat of Bachu County and 260 kilometers from Kashi. “In vast Xinjiang， 200 kilometers is a mere stone’s throw，”said one driver in downtown Kashi.
Hou Hanmin， spokesperson for the regional government， told the Global Times that the killing showed features of a preplanned terrorist attack. The suspects were from one extended family， and their victims were of varied ethnicity. Attackers and victims all lived in the same neighborhood.
The clash was not about ethnic or religious issues， but rather was a heinous terrorist act designed to split the motherland and undermine national unity.
On the morning of April 29， Regional governor Nur Bekri said that the motivation behind the attack was not ethnic or religious. “It is a political fight between separatism and anti-separatism， and between safeguarding national unity and undermining that unity，” he said. “We will leave no room for compromises and concessions，” he stressed. He added the perpetrators would feel the full force of the law.
During the incident， Enwaer Ehet lost both his son and brother.
“My son was about to be married. His wedding ceremony was scheduled for April 25. And my brother’s two sons can hardly believe their father is dead； they’re in shock，” said Ehet. The remains of Ehet’s relatives were recovered from the house but were unrecognizable after the fire. Both were confirmed as victims after DNA verification.
Ren Changju， Selibuya’s chief of police， was also killed in the incident after expending all his ammunition. He killed one aggressor before being stabbed repeatedly. At a memorial service held in his honor， his wife Chen Lifang said： “All I want is to have him with us and watch him play with our son… Ren died doing his duty. He was a good policeman， a good husband and a good father. We will miss him.”
Combating Terrorism
Terrorism has occasionally struck Xinjiang， China’s western-most territory， which borders on Afghanistan， Pakistan， India and countries of the CIS. In the 1990s， bombs were set off on public buses in Urumqi， the region’s capital， killing three and injuring scores. Though knives were the weapons used in this most recent incident， the resulting carnage was no less severe.
“One characteristic of violent activities in Xinjiang is that terrorists use ‘cold weapons，’ such as knives. They always act in groups. Suicide bombings used to be rare， but over the past few years we have seen a worrying rise in such attacks in southern Xinjiang. With this latest incident， the fact that all suspects came from one family is both significant and worrying，” said Li Wei， director of the Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
International organizations have condemned recent attacks in Xinjiang as terrorism. They fulfil the definition of terrorism in that terror is used systematically as a means of coercion to achieve political goals. Many perpetrators associate with the “East Turkestan” movement that seeks to create a Uygur state through violent means. The separatist group was recognized as a terrorist organization by the Bush administration. More recently the Shanghai Cooperation Organization （SCO）， of which a number of Turkic states are members， condemned its activities.
At the SCO Ekaterinburg Summit in 2009， state leaders signed a convention on combating terrorism in a bid to enhance the legal foundations for anti-terrorism cooperation between member states and to raise the organization’s ability to fight across borders. The convention stipulated that any action to openly support or instigate terrorist attacks， any move to recruit personnel for terrorist attacks， and any attempt to participate in or fund terrorist activities is to be considered a hostile act.
According to Li Wei， the incident in Xinjiang in April fits all the criteria for terrorism. The assailants were extremists in ideology and sought destruction of the state through separatism. Terror was their means to achieve this goal.
As Xinjiang as a region has prospered in recent years， extremism， secessionism and terrorism have been on the wane. Li points out that attacks these days are carried out more in desperation at a lost cause than as a sign of increasing clout.
Li also said that signs of extremism in any one family are hard to detect. It is important for the local authorities to educate the general populace on how to spot increasingly radicalized behavior in their communities. They should also raise monetary rewards for reporting potential terrorist activities， improve monitoring efforts and enhance the ability to respond quickly to developing situations. Above all， further loss of life should be avoided at all costs.