BEIJING: Chinese researchers published on Thursday oral accounts by survivors of a terrorist attack that occurred in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region 12 years ago, turning the spotlight on a group of people who they say have long been understudied by scholars and have remained hidden from the public eye.
The report, titled “Victims and Survivors of Terrorism in China: An Oral History”, was released at a seminar held at Jinan University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. It reveals the harrowing experiences of those who lived through the atrocities that took place on a pedestrian street in southern Xinjiang’s Yecheng county on Feb 28, 2012.
Nine terrorists, who failed to execute their original plan that involved attacking students of nearby elementary and middle schools, went on a killing spree on Xingfu Road that evening, leaving 13 people dead and 16 injured on the spot, most of them passers-by or shopkeepers. Two victims later died in a hospital.
Local authorities quickly swung into action. Seven terrorists were shot dead, one was fatally wounded and one was arrested.
Zheng Liang, lead author of the report and director of the university’s Institute for Communication and Borderland Governance, said the document was the first of its kind in China and was aimed at shedding light on terror attack survivors who have so far received little or no attention from academia and the media.
Studies on terrorist attacks in China have mostly focused on the perpetrators in the past, he said, adding that it was high time that survivors who grapple with lifelong trauma receive the attention they deserve.
“They are also heroes, unsung heroes,” Zheng said. “They refused to be beaten down. They tried to stand up again. They tried to carry on with their lives.”
Tursun Talip, who lost his son Turghunjan, an auxiliary police officer, in the attack, was among the six people — survivors of the attack or relatives of the victims — interviewed for the report.
The 68-year-old, then an employee of the local education bureau, was working at a school that was among the original targets. He received a phone call warning him of the impending attack. He was told to inform the security staff and close the school gate. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
