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http://chinadigitaltimes.net Death Toll in Xinjiang Raised to 20 The death toll from the violence in Yechang, Xinjiang, yesterday has been raised to 20 as more details come to light about the incident. As foreign journalists have not been permitted to the area, most of the reporting relies on statements from government officials Al Jazeera has further details on the attackers and victims: The regional government did not identify any of the attackers or give their ethnicity. Nor did it identify the ethnicity of their victims. However, on Wednesday a local police officer, who gave only his surname Tuo, told the AFP news agency: “At around …. 6:00pm [local time; 10:00 GMT] around a dozen rioters carrying axes appeared in the market, in an area that is mostly populated by Han people. “Most of the victims were Han people, but some were Uighurs.” The vast region, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to around nine million Uighurs who complain of oppression under Chinese rule. The number of Han, China’s dominant ethnic group, living in the region has increased dramatically over the last decade.
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