KUNMING, China — The group of about 10 attackers, dressed in black and wearing cloth masks, arrived in front of Kunming Railway Station in southwest China on Saturday night and began slashing at employees and commuters, sometimes repeatedly plunging their long knives and daggers into people too stunned or slow to flee.
By the time the police shot dead four assailants and ended the slaughter, the square and ticket sales hall at the station were strewn with bodies and moaning survivors in pools of blood. According to the state news media, 29 people were killed and 143 wounded. The police captured one of the assailants but several others were said to be still at large. Witnesses said that at least one of the attackers was a woman.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack,
officials on Sunday described the killings as an act of terrorism planned and perpetrated by separatists from Xinjiang, where members of the Uighur minority are increasingly at odds with the government. According to the official Xinhua news service, President Xi Jinping deplored the attack and called for “an all-out effort to punish the terrorists.” ...
The Uighurs are a Turkic people who mostly follow moderate traditions of
Sunni Islam, and culturally have more in common with similar people across Central Asian countries than with Han Chinese....
Full story at NYT
