Cengiz, a Uighur, said the riots started when Chinese security forces arrested a group of women reading prayers in a house in Yining on February 4, a Muslim holy night. Rioters then marched on the police station, said Cengiz, of the East Turkestan Immigrants Association. The Uighurs had their own republic of East Turkestan from 1944 to 1949. Xinjiang is now one of five autonomous regions of China. Covering one-sixth of China, Xinjiang has a population of 16.6 million, of whom 38 per cent are ethnic Chinese, according to Chinese figures.
Chinese authorities acknowledge there is unrest in the region.
In a review of 1996, Abdulahat Abdurixit, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, claimed successes in fighting separatists and vowed continued crackdowns.