BEIJING: Chinese police has shot down five suspected criminals in the troubled Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region sending out clear signals that the government would allow no disturbances ahead of the Olympic Games.
Uighur separatists had been earlier blamed by the Chinese government of plotting to blow up Olympic facilities.
But the government did not clarify if the Uighurs shot dead belonged to a specific separatist group or were merely oridinary criminals with no political intensions.
Two other persons sustained bullet injuries after the police opened fire on a group of people trying to resist arrest after they had stabbed a police officer in this Muslim dominated area. Eight others have been arrested. Police said that the 15-member gang had burst into a beauty saloon and injured its owner.
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