China has suffered one of its deadliest ever acts of terror, according to authorities, after a group of more than 10 knife-wielding men killed at least 29 people and injured over 130 in a brutal assault at a train station in southwest China’s Kunming city.
China’s far west region of Xinjiang is home to a decades-long, mostly low-grade insurgency by some of its native Uighur inhabitants opposed to Chinese Communist rule. In the past year, deadly attacks have increased, mostly on police stations likely chosen as symbols of Chinese power in Xinjiang.
Beijing blames outside forces and religious extremists for fomenting trouble between the Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people, and the Han, China’s majority ethnic group. Uighur activist groups accuse Chinese authorities of causing unrest through repressive, discriminatory policies. The U.S. State Department said last week there was “severe official repression of the freedoms of speech, religion, association, and assembly of ethnic Uighurs” in Xinjiang in 2013.
Police shot dead four of the more than 10 suspected attackers, captured one alive and are hunting the rest, according to Xinhua. Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping called for “all-out efforts” in the investigation and to “punish the terrorists in accordance with the law.”
Survivor Yang Haifei, who was injured on his chest and back, was buying a ticket when he saw a group of people, mostly in black, charge in and start attacking. “I saw a person come straight at me with a long knife and I ran away with everyone,” he told Xinhua, noting that people who were slower to escape were severely injured. “They just fell on the ground,” he said.
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