China is increasing the police presence in the predominantly Muslim Uighur province of Xinjiang to encourage management of the area's large migrant population and crackdown on what Beijing calls "illegal religious activity".
China's official news agency, Xinhua, as quoted VOA News said an additional 8.000 police officers would begin patrolling villages in the northwestern region.
The media quoted a regional Communist Party official as saying the move was aimed at consolidating "lasting peace and (social) stability in the region."
Xinjiang is home to millions of Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs who are mostly opposed to Han migration to the region.
Xinjiang was hit by riots in 2009 due to police violence when Uighur Muslims protested against China's policy of trying to eradicate Islamic identity in the region and migrate Han tribes to keep pace with Muslims. Rioting in the regional capital Urumqi killed around 200 people.
China has also drastically increased its police presence in southwestern Sichuan Province, in a crackdown on ethnic Tibetans who have also protested against the migration of Han Chinese to what is traditionally Tibetan. Witnesses and exile groups say at least 7 people have been killed and dozens injured in the province in the past two weeks. (Mel / VOA News). *
