XINJIANG | Blasts kill two as Tohti verdict due

In this May 1 file photo, armed Chinese paramilitary policemen march past the site of the explosion outside the Urumqi South Railway Station in Urumqi, Xinjiang

At least two people were killed and dozens injured by a series of blasts in China’s Xinjiang province, state media reported, ahead of a verdict in the trial of Ilham Tohti, a scholar from the region.
Several explosions rocked the county of Luntai at 5 p.m. Sunday, news website Tianshannet reported, and six people were detained by police, said the website controlled by the government of Xinjiang in northwest China. It’s the latest in a series of attacks across the country that police have blamed on ethnic minority Uighur separatists.
President Xi Jinping is overseeing a nationwide crackdown against alleged Uighur terrorists, which has included several shootouts, mass arrests and a stadium trial at which people were sentenced to death. The verdict is expected this week in the trial of Tohti, an economics professor who taught at Minzu University in Beijing, for allegedly promoting separatism in Xinjiang, where about 45 percent of the population are Uighurs.
Tohti ran a website called Uighur Online which carried discussions of China’s Xinjiang policies, where Uighurs face restrictions on their personal and religious freedoms. He has been in custody since January and was charged in July with “splitting the country.”
Tohti is prepared for the worst as he faces a possible life sentence, Li Fangping, his lawyer, said last week.
China has also demoted the party secretary of Shache county, He Limin, for being responsible for clashes in Xinjiang on July 28 and the death of Imam Jume Tahir on July 30, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing a decision of the Xinjiang Communist Party committee. Those clashes left 37 dead and 94 injured, Xinhua said. In total 17 officials and police officers were penalized. David Tweed, Bloomberg