Twenty-eight terrorists killed in 56-day hunt in Xinjiang

The report in Tianshan Net, a news portal run by Communist Party officials in Xinjiang, was the first official confirmation of the bloody September 18 mine attack, which had been reported in a few foreign media but was kept tightly under wraps in China.

Sixteen people were killed with knives, including five policemen, the reports said.

US-funded Radio Free Asia, which first reported the incident about two months ago, said at least 50 people had died.

Twenty eight terrorists linked to foreign militants have been killed in China’s restive Xinjiang province in one of the major operations in the area where Uyghur Muslims have a majority, authorities said.

The 29 member group, including one who surrendered, was allegedly responsible for a deadly coal mine assault in Xinjiang’s Aksu region.

China’s government says it faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists in energy-rich Xinjiang, on the border of central Asia, where hundreds have died in violence in recent years.

After that, the newspaper said the attackers came out at the troops wielding knives and that they were then “completely annihilated”.

Xinjiang Daily said: “After 56-days of continuous fighting, Xinjiang destroyed a violent terrorist gang directly under the command of a foreign extremist group”. Much of the unrest, they argue, is due to frustration at controls on the culture and religion of the Muslim Uighur people who live in Xinjiang.

“In 2008, members of the group began watching videos containing messages of religious extremism, gradually reinforcing their extreme beliefs”, the statement said.

It is unclear why the government had not disclosed the attack on the coal mine earlier.

“China is a victim of terrorism”, Xinhua said in a commentary late on Thursday.

Pictures on the Xinjiang government’s news website showed armed security forces crossing rivers and clambering up rocks in what looked like a remote part of the region.

A few critics say the violence in Xinjiang stems from government policies that have marginalized the Uighurs, and also warn that Beijing’s harsh crackdown may be radicalizing a few Uighurs.

Hours after the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 14, China’s Ministry of Public Security carried a brief statement that was believed to refer to the mine attack and the following manhunt against “terrorists”.