China battling Islamic separatists in Xinjiang. 139 arrests, 12 killed.

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China has arrested 139 people in Xinjiang for allegedly spreading jihad, state-run media said on Wednesday, as it warns of growing religious extremism in the far western region home to Muslim Uighurs.

Beijing has pointed to violent incidents to indicate a rising militant threat among the ethnic minority, but information in the vast region is tightly controlled and Uighur organisations complain of cultural and religious repression.

Police in Xinjiang have "handled an increasing number of cases in which individuals have posted or searched for religious extremist content on the Internet", the China Daily said, citing an unnamed source in the Xinjiang Daily.

In the two months to the end of August, 139 people were arrested for "spreading religious extremism including jihad", it said.

Also citing the Xinjiang Daily, the Global Times said a farmer in Hotan was detained after he uploaded 2GB of e-books about secessionism which were read 30,000 times.

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China's state-run media have previously reported that Uighurs have fought in Syria's civil war against the regime, then returned home to put their militant experience into practice.

Members of a gang behind what China called a "terrorist attack" in Lukqun in June that left 35 people dead watched extremist videos beforehand, the China Daily said, citing police.

A court sentenced three people to death and one person to 25 years in jail in September over the attack, saying they had taken part in a "terrorist organisation", the official news agency Xinhua reported at the time.

The clash was Xinjiang's deadliest since 2009, when riots between Uighurs and China's ethnic majority Han left 200 people dead.

Xinjiang's population is 46 percent Uighur and 39 percent Han, according to official statistics, but the latter largely dominate the economy and form a majority in the regional capital Urumqi.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/China-arrests-139-in-Xinjiang-for-urging-jihad-Report/articleshow/23781521.cms

BEIJING: Chinese security forces shot and killed 12 men and wounded 20 others in a village adjoining Kashgar city, close to the border with Pakistan, according to US-based Radio Free Asia. The area has seen intense movement by Turkmenistan separatists and sporadic violence in recent days.

The radio report said the killings took place more than three weeks ago in a small village but details emerged only this week. It quoted local officials as saying that separatists had been building and testing explosives at a desert camp in the village where the incident took place.

The camp was raised by dozens of heavily armed security personnel, it said. But the incident has not been covered by the state run media, Xinhua. China has persistently asked Pakistan to check infiltration of Taliban terrorists and weapons from across the border into Xinjiang. A recent article in the state-controlled Global Times expressed unhappiness over Pakistan's responses to Chinese requests.

Chinese authorities said they have intensified the campaign against terrorists in Xinjiang. An estimated 100 people have been killed in violence in Xinjiang, home to nine million Uyghur Muslims, over the past three months. A section of Uyghur Muslims are seeking an independent East Turkmenistan by slicing out Xinjiang from China.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/12-killed-near-Pak-border-in-Chinas-Xinjiang/articleshow/22786305.cms