Four people who allegedly attacked a Communist Party office in China's Xinjiang region on 28 December have been shot dead by Chinese police. However, local government officials did not clarify if they were killed on the spot or later in the day.
Official Xinhua news agency reported that the four assailants barged into the Communist Party compound in Karakax county, deep in southern Xinjiang's Uighur heartland, on Wednesday and detonated explosives that killed one person and injured three others.
The state media also declared the attack on the autonomous territory in northwest China, which is predominantly Muslim Uighur region, as an act of terrorism. Other than the existing tension between the Uighur population and the ethnic majority Han Chinese, the region has been recently maligned by repeated unrest caused by Islamist militants and separatists.
In November, in a bid to combat violence in Xinjiang, Chinese authorities started confiscating passports from people in the region. Moreover, in October, a ban was imposed by the government which restricted encouraging of children into religious activities by guardians or even parents.
