Target Security personnel Deaths 7+ | Attack type Bomb Non-fatal injuries 14+ | |
 | ||
Location Aksu, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China Date 19 August 2010
10:30 – (UTC+3) | ||
The 2010 Aksu bombing was a bombing in Aksu, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China that resulted in at least seven deaths and fourteen injuries when an Uyghur man detonated explosives in a crowd of police and paramilitary guards at about 10:30 on 19 August, using a three-wheeled vehicle. The assailant targeted police officers in the area, and most of the victims were also Uyghurs. Xinhua news agency reported that 6 people were involved in the attack, and 2 had died; the other four were detained by police.
Contents
Background
A number of violent incidents have occurred in Xinjiang since the 1990s. In the year before the attack, Xinjiang had ethnic tensions that continued to trouble the region. Before the 2010 Aksu blast, Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri was quoted as saying Xinjiang faces a "long and fierce and very complicated struggle" because "Separatism in Xinjiang has a very long history, it was there in the past, it is still here now and it will continue in the future."
In July 2009, riots in Ürümqi resulted in the deaths of numerous Han Chinese and Uyghurs. There was another spate of attacks in the region a few months later.
Attack
The site of the explosion, Aksu (Uyghur: ئاقسۇ; Chinese: 阿克苏), is about 650 km (400 mi) west of Urumqi, and is just 60 km (37 mi) from the border with Kyrgyzstan. The bomb exploded at the T-intersection of Kalata Road (Uyghur: قالاتا يولى; Chinese: 喀拉塔路) and Wuka Road (Uyghur: ئۇكا يولى; Chinese: 乌喀路). According to a report by the Associated Press, two attackers drove a three-wheeled motorbike into a crowd and threw explosives from it. According to reports the attack was carried out by a man, who was arrested on the spot and whom Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin stated is Uyghur, and a woman who died during the attack.
Most of those killed in the blast were local security officers. Five victims died on the spot, and two died at the hospital; of the seven, at least five were police officers. An anonymous Radio Free Asia source claims that officers in the targeted police station had commonly booked Uyghurs with beards or traditional head coverings and brought them to the police station for political education. However, according to The Epoch Times, most of the people injured in the blast were common folk. The ethnicity of the victims was not discussed at the news conference of Aksu prefecture, but Hou told reporters that "most of the victims are U[y]ghurs."
At the time of the conference the incident was not classified as a terrorist attack. An early Epoch Times report claimed that the city was put under lockdown after the attack and that the armed police, special police, and armored cars patrolled the streets, although Hou denied this later.
Investigation
Chinese police stated that it was an intentional act, and that a suspect was detained at the scene after incurring injuries himself. The four detained suspects were part of a "violent gang of six people" according to Xinjiang government spokesperson Hou Hanmin.
Internet censorship
According to one netizen interviewed by Radio Free Asia, mention of the bombing on internet boards, including postings containing the official version of events, have been speedily deleted from the internet in China.