Police provide details on Sept 21 terror attack

The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region's information office released details on a terrorist attack on Sept 21 that killed 10 people, including two police officers and two assistant police, and injured 54.

Forty attackers were shot dead by police or killed in suicide explosions, and two attackers were arrested in Luntai county, the Bayinguoleng Mongolia autonomous prefecture, the regional information office said on the night of Sept 25.

The multiple explosions were detonated simultaneously at about 5 pm at a bazaar patronized by local residents from ethnic groups; two police stations; and the front of a shop. Thirty-two of the injured victims were Uygurs, according to a statement from the Xinjiang information office.

A police investigation showed that the attackers were led by Memet Turson, who was shot dead by police. Memet Turson was under the influence of religious extremism since 2003 after he graduated from a vocational school, police said.

He has become more devoted since 2008. He believed the meals that his parents cooked were not halal because his parents were government workers. He even refused to attend his father's funeral, police said.

Memet also refused to attend his brother's wedding because the couple's marriage certificate was issued by the government. He recruited people to join a terrorist group lead by him when he worked as a construction contractor. Memet then plotted and carried out the attack.

The investigation is continuing, local police said.