China Tightens Grip On Muslim Region; Number Of Arrests Increase By 95%

To curb "violent and terrorist activities," China further tightened its grip on its Muslim-majority Xinjiang region last year, almost doubling the number of arrests authorities made the previous year amid the continuing ethnic tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese, state-run China Daily has reported.

Prosecutors in the said autonomous region, which is home to 10 million Turkic-speaking and mostly Muslim Uighurs, approved the arrest of 27,164 terror suspects last year, which is 95 percent higher than the previous year.

"We've shortened the time between approving arrests and prosecution in major terrorist-related cases so the suspects can be tried as soon as possible to show the region's determination to fight terrorism in accordance with the law," Nixiang Yibulayin, chief prosecutor of the Xinjiang People's Procuratorate, was quoted as saying in the Work Report he delivered at the annual session of the 12th Xinjiang regional People's Congress.

Prosecutions included the "terrorist attack" at a morning market in Urumqi in May last year, which claimed 39 lives and injured 94 people, China Daily said.

Also included was the attack in Shache county, southern Xinjiang's Kashgar prefecture in July last year, which killed 37 people and injured 13 others.

Authorities will continue their anti-terrorist campaign, to "at least the end of this year," the newspaper said.

"Deadly terrorist attacks" in the region have been blamed by authorities on religious extremism.

Around 50 executions and death sentences have been publicly announced since June amid the crackdown against "separatists" and "terrorists," Al Arabiya reported.

Rights groups argue that the "harsh police treatment" of China's Muslim minority have led to violence, according to the newspaper.

Fines or detention have also been imposed on those who wear veils or grow beards. There have also been warnings against observing Ramadan, Bloomberg wrote.

This week, two Uighurs have been shot dead by the Chinese police as they tried to cross the border illegally into Vietnam.

The two, who were part of a group of five "stowaways," "violently resisted arrest," the Telegraph reported. They were also said to have attacked the police with knives before being shot.

Two members of the group are in detention. Another one remains at-large.