Chinese authorities accused of covering up shooting of civilians in Xinjiang protest
Government says people killed during militant attack on a police station last July
Something hideously violent happened in Elishku. Whether it was a separatist attack or a civilian massacre is shrouded in the mists of conflict, control, claim and counter-claim that plague China’s mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang.
According to the authorities, 96 civilians and “terrorists” died when militants attacked a police station in the township last July 28. Residents, speaking to foreign media for the first time, say that hundreds of people mounted a protest against government restrictions on religion which was brutally put down.
“Everyone who joined the crowd is either dead or in jail,” said Mahmouti, who hid in his nearby home with his then-pregnant wife. “No one has been heard from since, no one knows where they are now.”
It is by far the bloodiest incident in Beijing’s “strike hard” campaign against violence in Xinjiang, launched after an attack on a train station in the regional capital Urumqi a year ago on Thursday.
Allegations have swirled ever since the killings in Elishku, but information in the far-western region is hard to verify independently, and AFP was the first foreign media to speak to locals on the scene.
Residents described more than 500 people, some carrying hoes, axes and other farm tools, marching down a dusty tree-lined road to meet a line of security personnel armed with assault rifles.
Mahmouti heard them ordering the crowd to “Step back”, and moments later, a stream of gunfire. The shooting continued intermittently for hours, he added.