At least 12 dead in Xinjiang riots

At least 12 people were killed Tuesday in riots in Xinjiang, the restive region in China’s far northwest, as rioters armed with knives attacked and killed 10 people and the police shot dead two rioters, the Financial Times reported, quoting a state media report. The riots took place in Kargilik (Yecheng in Chinese), a town on the southern rim of the Taklamakan desert. Sectarian violence has become common in Xinjiang, in which most ethnic minority Uighurs reside, exacerbated by a wave of Han immigration to the region and development projects led by Beijing. The incident followed a wave of self-immolations and protests in which several people were shot dead by police in the Tibetan areas of western China in recent months. Tibet and Xinjiang together account for one-third of China’s land area and many of its natural resource deposits.