Beijing, September 04: Armed police deployed en masse Friday across China’s restive Urumqi city after tens of thousands of people protested over mysterious syringe attacks that have revived ethnic tensions here.
Contingents in riot gear, some of them 500-strong, were stationed at key points in the capital of northwestern Xinjiang region, where violence erupted in July between mainly Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, leaving nearly 200 dead.
Security forces blocked roads leading to People’s Square, where the main protests took place Thursday. Barricades were erected on key thoroughfares and traffic was cut off in several areas of the city of 1.8 million people.
Government notices were posted banning all large gatherings, the use of any weapons, and incitement to violence. A few cars with smashed windshields were still in the streets.
Some shops and banks were open early Friday, and people slowly came back into the streets to head to work, but at least two key mosques were closed for morning Friday prayers.
Some Han Chinese residents have blamed the Uighurs for the hundreds of reported syringe attacks in the city, but official reports have been vague about the identities of the perpetrators, 21 of whom have been detained.
“People are getting stabbed just walking down the streets by other passers-by. They are Uighurs who are doing the stabbings,” said a 52-year-old Han woman surnamed Liu, who lives near Urumqi’s Uighur district.
“Everyone is afraid to go anywhere near anyone else,” said Liu, adding that one of her female colleagues had been attacked.
When asked why she thought assailants were using syringes, she said: “You can do it more surreptitiously. They don’t dare use sticks or knives because they know they would get caught quickly.”
State media, quoting police, said a total of 476 people had been treated in hospital after being attacked with syringes in Urumqi since mid-August. But the report noted that only 89 of them had “obvious signs of needle sites.”
No one had been infected or poisoned in the assaults, Xinhua news agency reported, and it remained unclear what the syringes contained, if anything.
Local and regional government officials were not immediately available for comment.
A 75-year-old man surnamed Cui accused Uighurs of fashioning weapons out of sharpened metal rings to slash people.
He said “big, big crowds” had massed in People’s Square on Thursday, throwing bottles at the regional government headquarters and “criticising the government.”
Regional Communist Party chief Wang Lequan appealed for calm and urged demonstrators to show restraint. He met with five members of the public, but no details were available, Xinhua said.
A group of middle-aged Uighur men, watching the deployment of the armed police, all told AFP they were unconvinced that Uighurs were to blame for the attacks.
“That is what the government and the newspapers are saying, but we are not clear. None of us has seen it,” said one of them, who identified himself only as Mehmet.
Another Uighur man in his 50s said, “It’s a small thing that has been blown up into something bigger.”
An official at the Hantenggeli mosque in the central Nanmen area told AFP that Friday prayers had been cancelled, as Muslims observe Ramadan.
“We are not open today. We were ordered to keep the mosque closed,” he said. “It is for everyone’s safety.”
A Uighur security guard at the White Mosque, near the bazaar district, said it was closed in the morning, but was unsure if it would reopen later in the day.
Uighurs say the July 5 riots occurred after Urumqi police tried to forcibly break up a peaceful protest over a brawl involving factory workers in distant southern China that state media said left two Uighurs dead.
Uighurs have long complained of repression by China.
China however has accused exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, who lives in the United States, of orchestrating the unrest. Kadeer on Thursday called on China to ensure public safety in Xinjiang.
–Agencies