BEIJING: Nine militants were shot dead and one captured in China’s restive far-western region of Xinjiang on Friday, state media said, in the latest bout of violence in a week in which dozens have been killed.

The official People’s Daily said on its microblog that the incident happened in Hotan in Xinjiang’s far south, when more than 30,000 civilians involved in a counter-terrorism operation with police discovered “signs” a terrorist gang was operating.

“Police and the 30,000 civilians in unison surrounded the terrorist gang, and nine of them were shot dead and one detained,” the newspaper said.

No police or civilians were injured in the operation, it added, without providing details.

China usually uses terms like “terrorist gang” to describe Islamist militants or separatists.

Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people who speak a Turkic language, has been beset for years by violence which the government blames on Islamist militants or separatists who it says want an independent state called East Turkestan.

Exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say the government’s policies in Xinjiang have provoked unrest — a claim Beijing denies.

Hundreds have been killed in Xinjiang in the past year and a half, and the past few days have seen a series of deadly incidents, including the murder of a prominent pro-government imam at a major mosque in the old Silk Road city of Kashgar.

State media reported on Wednesday that a gang armed with knives had attacked a police station and government offices on Monday in the town of Elixku, in Shache county.

The government said dozens of knife-wielding attackers were shot dead in Shache but has yet to give a full account of what happened in the county, which lies 200km from Kashgar. Police appeared to be on high alert on Wednesday, pouring into Kashgar and closing off roads.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2014