China blames unrest on Pakistan-trained ‘terrorists’

China on Monday blamed separatist "terrorists" trained in neighbouring Pakistan for an outbreak of deadly violence and imposed heavy security in a bid to prevent further unrest. Nineteen people were killed in two separate incidents in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar over the weekend in the latest wave of violence to hit the restive Xinjiang region, home to a mainly Muslim Uighur minority. The Kashgar local government said in a statement on its website the assailants behind an attack on a restaurant that left six dead on Sunday had learned explosive-making skills in terrorist-run camps in Pakistan. "The heads of the group had learned skills f making explosives and firearms in overseas camps of the terrorist group East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in Pakistan before entering Xinjiang," the online statement said. The attackers adhered to "extremist religious ideology" and advocated "jihad", the statement also said. Chinese authorities have accused the ETIM, which wants an independent homeland for Xinjiang's Uighurs, of orchestrating attacks in the region on many occasions. The United States and the United Nations have listed the group as a "terrorist" organisation, and China has previously said it has operations in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan. Pakistan said it would "continue to extend its full cooperation and support" to China's government against the ETIM. However, Xinjiang expert Michael Dillon told AFP there was little evidence the group had any links to Pakistan. "What we're seeing now is a repeat of China's complete unwillingness to see that unrest inside its borders might stem from poor conditions," said Dillon, an academic and author of the book "Xinjiang, China's Muslim Far Northwest". Many of Xinjiang's roughly nine million Turkic-speaking Uighurs are unhappy with what they say has been decades of political and religious repression, and the unwanted immigration of China's dominant Han ethnic group. This tension has triggered sporadic bouts of violence in the resource-rich and strategically vital region bordering eight countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sunday's ttack came less than 24 hours after eight people were killed and more than 20 others hurt at a night market in Kashgar by two knife-wielding assailants, according to authorities. Police also reportedly shot dead five attackers. The Kashgar government statement did not mention the night market attack, but some state media reports on Monday blamed both incidents on "terrorists". By Monday, the streets of Kashgar had reopened after a lockdown on Sunday, but they remained quiet, with a heavy police presence and few Han Chinese in evidence. Dozens of police carrying machineguns blocked the street where Sunday's attack took place, while soldiers and police stood guard at the city's main People's Square. A 51-year-old Han woman from Xinjiang's capital Urumqi who identified herself only by her surname, Lu, said she was in Kashgar on business, and was concerned about her safety in the city. "My family is worried about me visiting Kashgar. I won't take a taxi this time as most of the drivers are Uighurs. I've asked a friend to pick me up instead," she told AFP. A Uighur man in Kashgar who asked not to be named said he feared the city's Han population could launch revenge attacks. "I'm worried for my life," he said. The weekend unrest came after more than 20 people were killed last month in a clash with police in the remote city of Hotan. State media at the time quoted an official in Xinjiang calling the Hotan clash a "terrorist" attack, adding that four people were killed when a crowd set upon a police station. But Uighur activists called it an outburst of anger by ordinary Uighurs and said security forces killed 20 people during the unrest. In the nation's worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs savagely attacked Han Chinese in Urumqi in July 2009 - an incident that led to retaliatory attacks by Han on Uighurs several days later. The government says around 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured in the violence, which further weakened the authoritarian Communist Party's claims of harmony among the country's dozens of ethnic groups.