China Tightens Security in Railway Stations

The Chinese government has tightened security at major train stations around the country after the attack with knives held yesterday by a man in a railway station in Guangzhou (capital of Guangdong province), in which six were injured. The assailant, who acted alone, police said, was arrested after being wounded by gunfire from agents. Beijing has also announced that it is conducting ” special operations counter-terrorism.”

Minister and two Deputy Ministers of Public Security visited Tuesday night train terminals in different cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, in an effort to reassure the public and show that the government is taking the issue seriously security, as reported Wednesday the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP).

The attack in Guangzhou is the third to be produced with knives against civilians in just over a month in railway stations. Officials said that the author acted alone, but some witnesses said a Chinese media that there were several assailants.

Police does not know the reason for the attack or whether it is related to ethnic and nationalist conflict in the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur minority. The two previous attacks were attributed by the authorities to ” religious extremists ” Xinjiang connections with groups abroad.

On Wednesday, three people were killed and 79 wounded in an assault with knives and bombs in a train station in Urumqi (capital of Xinjiang). Killed a bystander and two authors. On March 1, 29 people were in the station Kunming (capital of the southern province of Yunnan) died and 143 were injured in the stabbing  during an attack carried out by “a group of separatists in Xinjiang “, according to the Government called. Four of the attackers, including a woman, were killed by police gunfire.

Within hours of the attack yesterday, Guo Shengkun, Public Security Minister, visited the South Station Changsha (capital of Hunan Province) to inspect security measures, as SCMP. Fu Zhenghua, vice minister of Security, visited Beijing Station and Beijing South Station, and was informed that in an emergency the police only take two minutes to reach the place.

Controls were already quite intense in China, where it is necessary to move the luggage through X-ray machines at train stations and subway. But, following recent attacks, and surveillance patrols have been increased in the central areas of cities. You can view police units with guns and dogs.

Security forces Zhengzhou (capital of Henan Province) held on Tuesday night in some exercises involving 100,000 policemen, guards, firefighters and officials, the newspaper of Hong Kong. They set up roadblocks and inspected cheap hotels and cafes.

Beijing has said it will conduct “special anti-terrorist operations.” Meng Jianzhu, head of the powerful Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Chinese Communist Party, which controls, among other bodies, the police, has promised that ” the authorities will strike hard at terrorists,” according to the official Xinhua news agency. To do this, ” the police and judicial departments make use of new technologies to detect and eliminate security threats.” Also must ” improve its relations with citizens and win their support, especially on the Internet.”

A recent report by a think tank in Beijing says China is not well prepared to deal with terrorist attacks. The study by the Center for International Strategy and Security Studies at the University of International Relations in Beijing says the risks of terrorism in the country have intensified.

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Posted by Khalil Khan on May 9 2014. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.