By KUNA,
Tokyo : Three security staff were stabbed to death and another injured on Tuesday in an attack at a road checkpoint in the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang in northwestern China, state-run media reported.
The attack occurred near the city of Kashgar at about 9 a.m. (0100 GMT), the third deadly assault in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in eight days, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The four security staff were stabbed by assailant who jumped off from a vehicle passing by the checkpoint, the report said. The town is about 30 km away from Kashgar, where 16 paramilitary police were killed and 16 others injured in an attack on Aug. 4.
The Chinese authorities said the Aug.4 attack was carried by Muslim separatist militants.
On Sunday, 10 suspected bombers, a security guard and a member of the public were also killed in the town of Kuqa in Xinjiang after bombings and shootings involving 15 suspects.
The Chinese government has repeatedly said Muslim separatists pose one of the biggest threat to the Beijing Olympics.
Xinjiang, where 8.3 million Uygur Muslims live, has been under China’s control since 1949. Muslim separatists have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for decades.