Beijing arrests three suspects in Kunming massacre
Kunming (
AsiaNews / Agencies) - Chinese police have identified a man, Abdurehim Kurban,
as the mastermind behind the massacre that took place on 1 March in the Kunming
railway station, and has also arrested three suspects. The
move was reported today to Xinhua,
the official government agency, citing the Ministry of Public Security. Eight
people - including two women - were responsible for the attack, which resulted
in 29
deaths and more than 130 injured. Four
suspects were killed on the spot by police and one woman was injured and
captured. The
Ministry has not clarified whether Kurban is among those arrested or who dies at
the scene.
Meanwhile,
Beijing continues to insist that the Kunming attack was "a terrorist
attack organized by Xinjiang separatists".
Xinjiang is the autonomous northern region that is home to the ethnic Uyghur,
Turkic speaking Muslims. Foreign
Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said that the flags of the separatist forces of
East Turkistan (the independent region that the Uyghurs want to create - ed) were
found at the scene yesterday.
Yesterday,
at the opening of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) about 2 thousand
delegates observed a minute of silence for the victims. There
were only two other occasions in which the CPPCC stopped to commemorate
something: in 1949 for the martyrs of the Revolution and in 1997 on the death
of Deng Xiaoping.
Dilxat
Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress , asked the Chinese government
to be "more transparent" in its investigation and not to use it
"as an excuse to crack down on the Uyghur people".
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