33 dead in Kunming attacks

China on Sunday blamed Muslim militants from the restive far western region of Xinjiang for the deadly attack on Kunming Railway Station in the country’s Yunnan province, in which at least 33 have died so far. Four of those killed were part of the group of knife-wielding attackers who slashed mercilessly through the crowd of passengers and railway employee at a peak hour traffic time. Chinese police say they shot dead the four attackers in a response that was swift but not good enough to save many lives lost. The attack, in the balmy southwestern city of Kunming late on Saturday evening, marks a major escalation in the simmering unrest which had centered on Xinjiang, a heavily Muslim populated region strategically located on the borders of Central Asia. It is the first time people from Xinjiang have been blamed for carrying out such a large-scale attack so far from their homeland, and follows an incident in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in October which shook the country’s Communist leadership. China has stepped up security in Xinjiang after a vehicle ploughed into tourists on the edge of Tiananmen Square, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders. China labeled it a suicide attack by militants from Xinjiang. Xinjiang is home to the Muslim Uighur people. State news agency Xinhua said the train station attack, in which more than 130 were also injured, was ‘an organised, premeditated violent terrorist attack’. “Evidence at the crime scene showed that the Kunming Railway Station terrorist attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces,” it added, citing the Kunming government. Police shot dead four of the attackers and detained one, Xinhua said, while approximate five others are on the run. The total assault squad numbered between 10 and 12, injured victims and witnesses said, according to Reuters.