Chinese President Xi Jinping has for the first time visited the volatile Xinjiang province bordering PoK, where he appealed for ethnic unity between native Muslim Uygurs and majority Han Chinese to foil the designs of terrorists.
Xi visited an armed police team in Kashgar, the border town close to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, on Sunday where he acknowledged the complicated situation and the hardship the soldiers have endured, official media here reported today.
Kashgar bore the brunt of attacks of Islamic militants as the security situation became tenuous with increasing tensions between Uygurs and Han settlers from outside provinces.
China alleges that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an al-Qaeda backed outfit fighting for the independence of Xinjiang is fuelling militancy in the province with deadly attacks.
Stability in Xinjiang has become increasing important not only to local people but to national security as terrorist activities saw an obvious rise over the past two years, a report in the state-run Global Times said.
On March 1, a group wielding knives attacked passengers at Kunming Railway Station in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, killing 29 and injuring 143. The assailants were later identified as terrorists from Xinjiang.
The attack is also seen as a turning point where terrorists began to target ordinary people instead of symbols of government such as police stations, it said.
Visiting Xinjiang for the first time after he took over as China's new leader last year, Xi visited the military and police forces as well as people from both the communities.
Xi visited the military area command in Kashgar on Sunday afternoon and told the soldiers, who are of various ethnic groups, that "they should unite like a family".
He urged them to "care for each other, help each other, study together, maintain national unity and guard the borderland of China".
Earlier, Xi who now heads the recently formed National Security Council (NSC) called on public to make the "terrorists" run like "rats".
"(We must) make terrorists become like rats scurrying across a street, with everybody shouting 'beat them!'" he said at a meeting of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) on April 26.
Calling terrorism the common enemy of the people, Xi called for improving counter-terrorism systems and abilities and the public to build a "wall of bronze and iron" to fight against terrorism.
