Five Hong Kong reporters were briefly detained in Urumq i yesterday as they tried to interview people who had been tear-gassed - the second such incident involving Hong Kong reporters and paramilitary forces during the past three days.
Meanwhile, the Xinjiang regional government vowed harsh punishment for syringe attackers who triggered the latest Urumqi unrest while at the same time sending about 1,500 officials to visit Uygurs in their homes to spread the government's message.
Those who stabbed others with needles containing poisonous or harmful substances would face at least three years in jail, and possibly life imprisonment, or even the death penalty, if convicted, according to a notice jointly released by the city's court, the prosecutor's office and police department late on Sunday.
Wang Lequan, Xinjiang's party chief, was quoted by Xinhua as saying yesterday the officials and police officers were dispatched to Uygur neighbourhoods in Urumqi to 'explain government polices and solve ethnic disputes'. Another 600 senior officials would be deployed to do the same in Han Chinese communities.
The reporters who were detained are Gary Chan Wai-li and his cameraman Lau Hiu-lap from NOW TV, RTHK reporter Emily Chan Miu-ling and Chow Man-tai, and Commercial Radio reporter Sherlock Yeung Tung-tat.
'We were detained on the ground that our presence would further provoke the restive crowd,' Yeung said after his release. 'They [police] pushed us around when they took us away.'