Beijing: A blast ripped through a building in
the capital of China's restive Xinjiang province this morning,
injuring two persons and trapping a child under the debris.
The blast that toppled the two-storey residential house
came following clashes between police and militants in the
province, in which eight persons including seven 'militants'
were killed.
Rescuers were frantically looking for a three-year-old
child who was trapped under the debris of the collapsed house
following the explosion in Urumqi.
According to the rescuers, two persons were injured in the
blast, and were later shifted to hospital.
The blast that ripped the upper floor of the building,
also damaged neighbouring houses, a news agency
reported.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated, the
report said.
China is battling East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM)
militancy in Xinjiang where Uyghurs Muslims have long resented
the increasing settlement of Han Chinese from mainland China.
Recently a clash took place when a group of militants
kidnapped two people in the remote mountainous areas of Pishan
county of the Hotan prefecture of Xinjinag bordering Pakistan
Occupied Kashmir (POK).
"There was speculation that the kidnapping was linked to a
surge in religious extremism in the Muslim ethnic Uygur-
dominated area that borders the Kashmir region controlled by
Pakistan and India," a report said.
A similar attack in Kashmghar, a border town close to POK
was blamed by the local government on terrorist training camps
in Pakistan.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, December 31, 2011, 15:55