Xinjiang riot toll rises to 156, unrest spreads
(Adds details)
BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - The death toll from ethnic violence in China's northwest Xinjiang region has risen to 156, and unrest spread to the city of Kashgar, where police dispersed a gathering of 200 people, state media said on Tuesday.
Angry protesters from the Uighur minority took to the streets of the regional capital Urumqi on Sunday, burning and smashing vehicles and shops, and clashing with anti-riot police.
Over 700 people have been detained for their suspected role in the violence, the official Xinhua news agency reported, although local residents told Reuters police were making indiscriminate sweeps of Uighur areas.
More than 20,000 armed and special police, troops and firefighters were mobilised in a massive crackdown on violence in Urumqi, but despite heightened security some unrest appeared to be spreading in the volatile region.
Around 200 people "trying to gather" at the Id Kah mosque in the centre of the Silk Road city of Kashgar were dispersed by police early on Monday evening, Xinhua said.
Police also had "clues" about efforts to organise unrest in Aksu city and Yili prefecture, the latter a border region that was racked by ethnic unrest in the late 1990s. [ID:PEK342918]
Along with Tibet, Xinjiang is one of the most politically sensitive regions in China and in both places the government has sought to maintain its grip by controlling religious and cultural life while promising economic growth and prosperity.
But minorities have long complained that Han Chinese have reaped most of the benefits from official subsidies, while making locals feel like outsiders in their own homes.
Beijing has said the unrest, the region's worst in years, was the work of separatist groups abroad, who wanted to create an independent homeland for the Muslim Uighur minority.
These groups deny organising the violence and say it was an outpouring of pent-up anger over government policies and Han Chinese economic dominance. (Editing by Myra MacDonald)
BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) - The death toll from ethnic violence in China's northwest Xinjiang region has risen to 156, and unrest spread to the city of Kashgar, where police dispersed a gathering of 200 people, state media said on Tuesday.
Angry protesters from the Uighur minority took to the streets of the regional capital Urumqi on Sunday, burning and smashing vehicles and shops, and clashing with anti-riot police.
Over 700 people have been detained for their suspected role in the violence, the official Xinhua news agency reported, although local residents told Reuters police were making indiscriminate sweeps of Uighur areas.
More than 20,000 armed and special police, troops and firefighters were mobilised in a massive crackdown on violence in Urumqi, but despite heightened security some unrest appeared to be spreading in the volatile region.
Around 200 people "trying to gather" at the Id Kah mosque in the centre of the Silk Road city of Kashgar were dispersed by police early on Monday evening, Xinhua said.
Police also had "clues" about efforts to organise unrest in Aksu city and Yili prefecture, the latter a border region that was racked by ethnic unrest in the late 1990s. [ID:PEK342918]
Along with Tibet, Xinjiang is one of the most politically sensitive regions in China and in both places the government has sought to maintain its grip by controlling religious and cultural life while promising economic growth and prosperity.
But minorities have long complained that Han Chinese have reaped most of the benefits from official subsidies, while making locals feel like outsiders in their own homes.
Beijing has said the unrest, the region's worst in years, was the work of separatist groups abroad, who wanted to create an independent homeland for the Muslim Uighur minority.
These groups deny organising the violence and say it was an outpouring of pent-up anger over government policies and Han Chinese economic dominance. (Editing by Myra MacDonald)
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