Violence in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has left 129 people dead, state media say - a sharp increase on an earlier reported toll.

Reports previously said only three people had died and more than 20 had been injured in the city of Urumqi.

Xinhua news agency said police restored order after demonstrators attacked passers-by and set fire to vehicles.

The government has blamed separatist Uighurs based abroad and exiles led by a US-based businesswoman.

They were accused of orchestrating attacks on majority ethnic Han Chinese.

Uighur exiles said police had fired indiscriminately on a peaceful protest.

An overnight curfew was imposed, as activists reported multiple arrests.

'Foreign plot'

Eyewitnesses said the violence started on Sunday with a few hundred people, and grew to more than 1,000.

Map

Xinhua says the protesters carried knives, bricks and batons, smashed cars and stores, and fought with security forces.

Uighur groups insisted a peaceful protest had become victim to state violence.

The Xinjiang government has blamed the latest unrest on Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighurs' leader who is living in exile in the United States.

"An initial investigation showed the violence was masterminded by the separatist World Uighur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer," the government said in a statement, according to Xinhua.

It said the violence had been "instigated and directed from abroad".

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in China says Xinjiang, a mainly Muslim area, has been a source of tension for many years.

Some of its Uighur population of about eight million, want to break away from China, and its majority Han Chinese population.

The authorities say police are securing order across the region and anyone disrupting order will be detained and punished.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8135203.stm

can't wait for a major crackdown....have been acting nice for the Olympics and now nothing to worry.....

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^ I fear for China if you are the one in charge.

dude, only a combination of carrots and iron fist works....some morons have been fed too much carrots...

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Can't wait for the firing squad to use pig lard bullets and charge the family for the cost of the bullets.

The government better act fast because if they don't there will be ethnic riots in Han cities on the East coast like in Guangzhou. There are fvcking Uighurs everywhere in China.

Unlike the US, there is no political correctness.

A long hot summer.

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I feed my blonde lots of char sue.

not too worry, panda..... very few uighurs are in other provinces, most are beggers anyway.....Other muslims in China are ethnic Hans and have nothing to do with this at all...

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Sh!tloads in Shanghai and Beijing. I know I've spent summers there.

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I feed my blonde lots of char sue.

like 1/10000000 of the population and no one will be able to do shiiit in SH or BJ....

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I hope you are right, dude. The problem is not just the Uighurs but the reaction of the Chinese majority. If Hans were killed in Xinjiang and the government don't act quick then they will be riots like the ones in Shaoguan.



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I feed my blonde lots of char sue.

trust me, most chinese outside of xinjiang have no interest in bullyiing those people....the beating of the other uighurs was because they were petty thieves and deserved it when they were caught...there is nothing to riot about in other places because there are only a few beggars and merchants scattered about....Shiit like this has been happening for years and nothing outside Xinjiang ever happened.

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