Chinese national broadcaster CCTV reported one female police officer’s death on its microblog on Monday, but the post did not mention further casualties.

On Friday, the two Uygurs in their 20s first killed two police officers, including one female officer, and a government official in Pishan County, Radio Free Asia said.

The two assailants then travelled to a nearby Keketiereke village to kill another three people, two government officials and one police officer, the organisation reported.

Both men were reportedly killed by police as they made their way back to Pishan County.

A staff member at the county government said she was unaware of the killings, while an individual at the county’s public security department declined to comment.

The post was not deleted, despite social media usually being heavily censored in Xinjiang.

The victim was identified by both Radio Free Asia and Officer Dan as Peridem Kuresh, a name that suggests the victim belonged to the Uygur ethnic community.

Dan did not reply to a request for further information.

Pishan County’s population of 250,000 is almost completely ethnic Uygur, according to census information. The killings are the latest in a series of attacks in the region which have claimed hundreds of lives over the last two years.

The Chinese government says religious extremists are to blame for the violence. Uygur exile groups say China’s restrictive ethnic and religious policies have exacerbated long-standing tensions.

It seems likely these events are a reaction to the increased government focus on security on the region, said Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London.

Attackers might also be inspired by earlier incidents. "People see things happen elsewhere and react in a similar fashion," he said. "It is also highly likely we are seeing more because we are paying more attention, and previously things that wouldn't have gotten coverage are now."

Pishan County was the scene of a high-profile shoot-out between police and a group of 15 religious extremists, who – according to state media – attempted to wage jihad in Central Asia in 2011.

According to a state media account, the men kidnapped two local herdsmen to guide them across the border to Pakistan. The herdsmen escaped and alerted police who killed seven of the men.

Last month, Xinjiang authorities said 50 people, including 40 suspected militants, were killed in what authorities called a terror attack in the region’s Luntai County.

Some of the attackers were shot dead, while others took their own lives by setting off explosives, the regional government’s Tianshan Net news website said at the time.

On Sunday, the intermediate court in Kashgar, a major town in southwestern Xinjiang, sentenced 12 people to death in connection with another attack in July in which 96 people died, according to Tianshan. It was the deadliest known incident since riots in the regional capital Urumqi in 2009 left around 200 people dead.