Police announce more Xinjiang detentions over riots

Police in Xinjiang detained an additional 319 people both within and outside Urumqi in connection with ethnic riots in the city in early July, AP reported. Police officials said they had made the detentions based on information obtained from the public and through investigations but did not provide information about the ethnicity of those detained. The new detainees will be added to more than 1,600 people already held for suspicion of involvement in the riots that the government says killed 197 people and injured more than 1,700. Prior to the announcement, a man purporting to be Sheik Abdul Haq al-Turkistani, the leader of an Islamic separatist group in Xinjiangan, posted a recording online calling for Muslims to attack Chinese interests around the world.