Beijing deploys special force to quell Xinjiang violence

Source: BDLive
SHANGHAI — Beijing sent paramilitary police into the streets this weekend and dispatched its top law enforcement official to the northwestern province of Xinjiang in a high-profile show of force after a week when at least 35 people died in the worst sectarian violence since large-scale unrest in 2009.
Eyewitnesses in the capital, Urumqi, where a large security force presence was deployed on Saturday, said the situation had calmed by Sunday and travellers returning from areas affected by the violence reported no unrest and only slightly heightened security along the way.
On Sunday, the Xinjiang police said it had apprehended the mastermind of what it called a “violent terrorist gang” responsible for unrest on Wednesday in the tourist town of Lukqun. The unrest comes just days before the fourth anniversary of the 2009 ethnic clashes in the capital Urumqi in which about 200 people died.
The official government news portal, Tianshannet, said Ahmatjan Niyaz Sidike formed a group to “conduct religious extremist activities”. The group “collected money, purchased knives, gasoline and other weapons” and planned the attacks in advance, the government said.
The provincial government’s spokesman, Yan Guoqiang, said no violence had been reported at the weekend. ” The general situation is stable, there’s no panic.”
Security in Urumqi had been heightened with special police cars on 24-hour patrol, he said, adding that there were special security checks at highway entrances to the capital. The region, which holds a significant portion of the country’s oil and gas reserves, has been shaken by increasingly frequent violent unrest in recent years.
The Uighurs, a Turkic people whose majority are Muslims, used to dominate Xinjiang, but the ethnic group is on the verge of being outnumbered by Han Chinese following many years of government encouraged migration.
The Communist party’s top law enforcer, Men Jianzhu, on Saturday ordered patrols “in all weather” by paramilitary police. A senior party official also sent to Urumqi, Yu Zhengsheng, whom the official China Daily newspaper described as “China’s top political adviser”, said during a Xinjiang cadres’ meeting that the government would “impose severe punishment on those taking part in violent crimes”.
One taxi driver who completed the journey from the affected area to Urumqi on Sunday said: “Everything is going along normally, it is not as tense as in 2009. There are some special police cars patrolling in downtown Urumqi and security checks are required to enter the downtown area but I haven’t seen any armoured trucks, and the life of ordinary people is not affected.”
On Friday, another Xinjiang town was hit by sectarian strife, according to state media, which said more than 100 knife-wielding attackers on motor bikes tried to storm a police station in the southern Hotan region.