Urumqi(China), July 07: Fresh unrest broke out today in China’s restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, where at least 156 people died in the worst communal flare up in decades leading to the arrest of over 1,400 people, including 55 women, in a massive crackdown.
A crowd of around 300 people staged a fresh protest in the regional capital Urumqi as a group of Beijing-based foreign journalists arrived in the city for reporting on the deadly riots between the ethnic Muslim Uygur community and the majority Han Chinese.
“A crowd of protesters surrounded a group of foreign journalists today morning, shouting slogans and creating a chaos,” state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.
It said 300 people joined the protest as about 1,000 people were watching.
Police have arrested 1,434 suspects over Sunday’s riot, including 1,379 men and 55 women for allegedly indulging in acts of “killing, beating, smashing, looting and burning”.
A government spokesman said the journalists, about 60 in number, were visiting a Uygur community, when a woman and her child came up, crying and demanding that the police release her husband, who she said was picked up over the riots.
She said she would die rather than live without him.
China has blamed separatist World Uygur Congress head Rebiya Kadeer, now living in exile in the US, for orchestrating the violence.
–PTI