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| A woman pays her respects to the members of the community team killed in the attack. Their identity photos still hang on the wall of the service hall in Selibuya township in Kashgar prefecture of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. (Photo by Zhen Shixin / for China Daily) |
A routine visit
On April 23, bombs were being made at a house in Selibuya, when community workers arrived on a routine visit at around 1 pm. Other members of the gang, who were not in the house, were alerted and took up positions outside.
Once they realized the community workers had discovered the explosives and were attempting to detain the men inside, this group ran into the house and targeted the officials.
Three of the nine community workers were women. All three were killed. Nine other people, including the head of Selibuya police station, who shot and killed one suspect and wounded another, were forced into a room and burned to death after the terrorists doused the room in petrol before setting it alight.
The group then ambushed a backup team of police officers and township officials. One official was killed on the spot and two police officers later died of their injuries. One of the suspected terrorists was also shot dead.
Four of the suspects then ran into the street and set a number of vehicles alight. One of the men was shot dead as he tried to break into the county government building. The other three stole a motorized tricycle and drove to Selibuya police station. They set the building on fire before being shot dead.
The attack was the deadliest incident in Xinjiang since a riot on July 5, 2009 in Urumqi, which left about 200 people dead. However, unlike the July 5 riot, which the authorities believe was instigated by foreign separatists and extremists, the initial investigation into the April 23 incident concluded that the terrorists had no connection with foreign forces, according to Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the regional information office.
When Ahmetjon received a call for backup, he assumed he would be dealing with a mass brawl so he left his gun at the police station. However, when he arrived at the house at 2 pm he immediately realized the incident was much more than a simple dispute.
Brainwashed
"I've dealt with fights involving more than 30 people. No matter how angry people were, they always stopped fighting when the police warned them. But these terrorists just didn't care about being killed," he said. "They are brainwashed by religious extremists. They are not normal. No one knows what they might have done had they not been busted this time."
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