BEIJING: A new report from Jinan University’s Institute for Communication and Borderland Governance, which is based in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, provides a harrowing account of a 2014 terrorist attack in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, based on interviews with survivors and witnesses.
The report is the second installment of a series “Victims and Survivors of Terrorism in China: An Oral History”, aiming to document the human impact of terrorism through personal narratives. The first installment was published in January with a few other installments to be issued later. The June 15, 2014, attack unfolded in a chess room on Yingbin Road in Hotan, Xinjiang, when three machete-wielding assailants stormed in and began attacking patrons. The struggle with witnesses and the intervention of police and bystanders eventually led to the attackers being subdued. Two of the terrorists died, one was injured and captured, and four civilians were wounded.
Luo Huarong, the 62-year-old owner of the chess room, recounted her desperate attempt to flee and call for help, only to be confronted by another attacker outside.
Luo sustained a permanent scar on one of her arms and expressed lingering emotional trauma. Surveillance footage revealed the attackers had specifically targeted her establishment. “They (the terrorists) didn’t intend to leave anyone alive,” Luo said in the report. After the attack, Luo transferred ownership of the chess room to someone else. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
