DHAKA: China’s Communist Party has expelled the military commander of Xinjiang from its ranks, state media reported on Sunday, after an attack in Beijing officially blamed on members of the Uighur minority in the troubled north-west region.

General Peng Yong, who was named commander of the Xinjiang military region in July 2011, was dismissed from his post as a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party of Xinjiang, the Xinjiang Daily said in a terse dispatch.

The state-run paper did not give a reason for Peng’s removal but it comes after last Monday’s attack in Tiananmen Square, which was a major embarrassment for the enormous state security apparatus.

Xinjiang has been the scene of several violent clashes, the most recent of which left dozens dead in April, June and August this year, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1723 HRS, NOV 03, 2013
RoR/RK