MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

They threatened that more attacks were coming. For peaceful purposes …

By Didi Tang, AP – “Authorities blamed a slashing rampage that killed 29 people and wounded 143 at a train station in southern China on separatists from the country’s far west and vowed a harsh crackdown Sunday, while residents wondered why their laid-back city was targeted.

Police fatally shot four of the assailants — putting the overall death toll at 33 — and captured another after the attack late Saturday in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. But authorities were searching for at least five more of the black-clad attackers.

State broadcaster CCTV said two of the assailants were women, including one of the slain and the one detained.

‘All-out efforts should be made to treat the injured people, severely punish terrorists according to the law, and prevent the occurrence of similar cases,’ said China’s top police official, Politburo member Meng Jianzhu, who arrived in Kunming early Sunday, an indication of how seriously authorities viewed the attack.

The attackers’ identities have not been confirmed, but evidence at the scene showed that it was ‘a terrorist attack carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces,’ Xinhua said. The far western region of Xinjiang is home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule by some members of the Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE’-gur) population, and the government has responded there with heavy-handed security.

Police in Kunming on Sunday were rounding up members of the city’s small Uighur community, believed to number no more than several dozen, for questioning in the attack and information about the assailants.” Read more.

Flashback: China: Suspected Islamists Attack Tourists In Tiananmen Square With Suicide Car Bomb – “Beijing police suspect that yesterday’s incident – where a car drove into some tourists in Tiananmen Square , and then exploded , killing all passengers – was carried out by Uyghurs suicide terrorists. The incident occurred almost under the large portrait of Mao Zedong that dominates the front of the Imperial Palace , a few dozen meters from Zhongnanhai, home to many leaders… police have linked the incident with the Xinjiang and some Uyghur suspects …” Read more.

Flashback: China: Rioters Shout ‘Allah is the Only God’ While Hacking People to Death – “Police shot down 14 rioters who attacked a police station in Hotan city of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Monday, a Communist Party official in Hotan said Wednesday. The official, who declined to be named, said the attack left four people dead, including an armed police officer, a security guard, a woman and a teenage girl. At least three others were injured… Shouting frantic religious slogans like ‘Allah the only God’, the rioters ran to the top floor and police opened fire to stop them, said an anonymous policeman with the police station.” Read more.

Flashback: China: At Least 21 Dead After Suspected Islamists Go On Killing Spree In Xinjiang – “A confrontation involving axes, knives, at least one gun and ending with the burning down of a house left 21 people dead in China’s troubled far-west region of Xinjiang, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday, calling it a ‘terrorist attack’. It was the deadliest violence in the region since July 2009, when Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, was rocked by clashes between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people.” Read more.

Flashback: China: Group Of Axe-Wielding Muslim Men Kill At Least 12 People During Attack at Market Place – “A group of axe-wielding men attacked a market in the volatile Xinjiang region of northwest China, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority, leaving at least 12 people dead, police and state media said. The motive behind the attack late on Tuesday was not immediately clear, although Xinjiang has suffered repeated outbreaks of ethnic unrest in recent years that the government has routinely blamed on separatists and terrorists.” Read more.