Beijing:
Two "thugs" stabbed to death a policewoman in the Chinese region of Xinjiang where the government says Islamists are using violence to push for a separate state, media reported on Monday.
The motorcycle-mounted attackers used sharp weapons to "cruelly attack and kill" the policewoman, China Central Television (CCTV) said on its official microblog on Monday.
Media did not specify the ethnicity of the policewoman but judging by her name, she was Uighur, a Muslim minority that calls Xinjiang home. CCTV citied a colleague of the woman as saying she was two months pregnant.
The attack occurred on Friday near a market in Pishan county, in Hotan prefecture.
Heavy restrictions on journalists in Xinjiang, where China has attributed recent violence to Islamist separatists it says seek to establish an independent state called East Turkestan, make verifying details about incidents difficult.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the region in the past two years, most in violence between Uighurs and ethnic majority Han Chinese. The government has also blamed attacks in other parts of China, including Beijing, on militants from Xinjiang.
The attack on the policewoman follows the killing of a state-backed Uighur imam in July, incidents that suggest growing antagonism toward Uighurs aligned with the government.
Exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say the government's own repressive policies in the region, on the borders of Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, have provoked unrest, an accusation the government denies.
In September, state media said police shot dead 40 rioters, some of whom were seeking to blow themselves up, after explosions went off in Luntai county.
Almost 100 people died in unrest in south Xinjiang's Shache county in July, which the government blamed on "terrorists" with links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
China says the ETIM has ties to al Qaeda, but there is disagreement among security experts over the extent of its capabilities, or even that it exists as a cohesive group.
Critics of the Chinese government say it uses the ETIM as an excuse to impose repressive policies on Uighurs, including restriction on religious practices and dress.
Many Uighurs cite employment discrimination and an influx of migrant Han workers as adding to ethnic tension.
The motorcycle-mounted attackers used sharp weapons to "cruelly attack and kill" the policewoman, China Central Television (CCTV) said on its official microblog on Monday.
Media did not specify the ethnicity of the policewoman but judging by her name, she was Uighur, a Muslim minority that calls Xinjiang home. CCTV citied a colleague of the woman as saying she was two months pregnant.
The attack occurred on Friday near a market in Pishan county, in Hotan prefecture.
Heavy restrictions on journalists in Xinjiang, where China has attributed recent violence to Islamist separatists it says seek to establish an independent state called East Turkestan, make verifying details about incidents difficult.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the region in the past two years, most in violence between Uighurs and ethnic majority Han Chinese. The government has also blamed attacks in other parts of China, including Beijing, on militants from Xinjiang.
The attack on the policewoman follows the killing of a state-backed Uighur imam in July, incidents that suggest growing antagonism toward Uighurs aligned with the government.
Exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say the government's own repressive policies in the region, on the borders of Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, have provoked unrest, an accusation the government denies.
In September, state media said police shot dead 40 rioters, some of whom were seeking to blow themselves up, after explosions went off in Luntai county.
Almost 100 people died in unrest in south Xinjiang's Shache county in July, which the government blamed on "terrorists" with links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
China says the ETIM has ties to al Qaeda, but there is disagreement among security experts over the extent of its capabilities, or even that it exists as a cohesive group.
Critics of the Chinese government say it uses the ETIM as an excuse to impose repressive policies on Uighurs, including restriction on religious practices and dress.
Many Uighurs cite employment discrimination and an influx of migrant Han workers as adding to ethnic tension.
© Thomson Reuters 2014
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