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Chinese official orders crackdown on 'extremists'

China's top official for the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region wants the management of religious affairs to "protect the legitimate, ban the illegal, fight infiltration, and crack down on crimes", reports the Xinhua news agency.
Chinese official orders crackdown on 'extremists'
'The Uyghur section of Urumqi',on Flickr
Published: August 08, 2011 10:03 AM GMT
Updated: August 08, 2011 10:07 AM GMT

The top official of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has ordered a harsh crackdown on religious extremists in the latest clampdown on outbursts of violence, said a Xinhua report on China Daily. Zhang Chunxian, secretary of Xinjiang regional committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC),  has ordered cadres and officials to rely on the public to unswervingly curb illegal religious activities and crack down on the use of the religion to incite violence or organize terrorist attacks, local media reported Monday. He said the managing of religious affairs should follow the central government's policy to "protect the legitimate, ban the illegal, fight infiltration, and crack down on crimes." Xinjiang - with 41.5 percent of its 21 million population Uygurs, a largely Muslim Chinese ethnic group - is described in the report as being at China's frontline against separatism, extremism and terrorism. Two bloody attacks occurred in the city of Kashgar on the last weekend of July, leaving at least 14 civilians killed and 42 others injured. Police shot dead eight attackers in clashes. The Kashgar violence followed a terrorist attack targeting a police station in the city of Hotan that left 18 people, including 14 attackers, killed. FULL STORYXinjiang top official vows crackdown on extremists (China Daily/Xinhua) PHOTO CREDITbryanrmason on FlickrCC BY 2.0

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