Xinjiang punishes officials after terror attack, murder

Seventeen officials and police officers have received penalties for being accountable for a deadly terror attack and the murder of a renowned imam in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The Xinjiang Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China on Sunday gave a list of penalized officials, including county and town officials, a vice secretary-general of Kashgar's Islamic association and several police officers.

He Limin, Party chief of Shache County, was demoted and stripped of his Party position. Some others were sacked, demoted or given inner-Party warnings.

A terror attack on July 28 in Shache County of Kashgar Prefecture left 37 civilians dead and 94 injured. Police shot dead 59 terrorists and arrested 215 others. The incident was followed by the murder of 74-year-old religious leader Jume Tahir in China's largest mosque, the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, on July 30 by extremists.

The Party committee of Xinjiang also said a former town-level legislator was promoted for his timely reports and good performance during the Shache attack.