Fatal clash in Xinjiang shows cadres lack crisis awareness, analysts say
Local authorities said the clash that killed 21 was an attack by jihadists, although there was no proof of outside involvement
A violent clash in Xinjiang that left 21 people dead last week exposed a lack of crisis awareness among local officials and their inability to deal with ethnic and religious strife, analysts said.
Nine officials, six police officers and six ethnic Uygurs died in the incident on Tuesday afternoon in a town in Bachu county, Kashgar prefecture, about 1,200 kilometres southwest of the provincial capital, Urumqi, said Hou Hanmin, a Xinjiang government spokeswoman.
Hou said local authorities branded the clash a terrorist attack by "jihadists" plotting violence in the region, even though there was no proof that they were linked to external Uygur groups such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.
The incident started when three "community workers" who were patrolling a neighbourhood called a local police station to report that a group of men were behaving suspiciously in a local house. The trio were then taken hostage.
More police and community workers rushed to the house, where they were set upon by 14 men armed with axes and knives. Only one officer, the local police chief, was armed, with a pistol.
The Chinese edition of the said the police and workers, including the hostages taken earlier, were held in a room in the house which was set on fire when the police chief ran out of bullets. None survived.
Only when armed police arrived and killed six of the attackers and arrested the others did the situation return to normal.
