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Explosions rock China's restive Xinjiang
2008-08-09
BEIJING - Several explosions rocked Kuqa county in China's restive Xinjiang region early on Sunday morning but there were no immediate reports of casualties, Xinhua news agency reported. Kuqa, a county of 400,000, is more than 3,000 km (1,860 miles) from Beijing, where the Olympic Games began on Friday under tight security. Xinhua said there were sporadic sounds of gunfire after the explosions in downtown Kuqa. Police had cordoned off the area where the blasts occurred and military forces had been deployed, the agency added. An attack at a border police station in Xinjiang, China's far western region, killed 16 police on Monday. China has said it has foiled militant plots targeting the Olympics and in the first six months of the year police detained dozens of people, many Muslim Uighurs, in Xinjiang accused of plotting to sabotage the Games, according to state media. Human rights critics and exiled Uighurs say Beijing has exaggerated the threat of violence in Xinjiang and stirred discontent by encouraging the migration of millions of Han Chinese into the region. Uighurs now make up slightly less than half of its 20 million people, according to official statistics.
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