Three die during riots in China's Xinjiang, Muslim majority region

[Naveed Yaseen]

BEIJING (July 06 2009): Three people were killed and more than 20 others injured as rioters swept through the capital of China's mainly Muslim Xinjiang region on Sunday, state media reported. The dead were from China's majority Han Chinese ethnic group, according to the official Xinhua news agency, with activist groups and a witness saying the violence in Urumqi city pitted thousands of Muslim Uighurs against police.

The unrest is the latest in more than a year of violence to hit Xinjiang, home to about eight million Uighurs - many of whom say they have suffered political and religious persecution under Han Chinese rule for decades.

Citing local government officials, Xinhua said the rioters "illegally gathered in several downtown places and engaged in beating, smashing, looting and burning". It said many motor vehicles were burnt in the unrest on Sunday afternoon, but did not identify who the assailants were nor give a motive.

But the eye-witness, a Han Chinese bar owner in the city centre where the riots took place, who refused to be named, told AFP there were around 3,000 Uighur protesters and some were armed with wooden batons and knives.

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