ISLAMABAD
\nChina has deployed hundreds of police and made arrests in a mostly Muslim southwestern town after clashes erupted over the planned partial demolition of a mosque, witnesses said.
\nOn Saturday, dozens of officers wielding truncheons and riot shields repelled a crowd outside the mosque that was hurling objects at them, videos circulating on social media and the witness said.
\n\u201cThey want to proceed with forced demolitions, so the people here went to stop them,\u201d a local woman who also asked not to be identified told media.
\n\u201cThe mosque is home for Muslims like us,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they try to knock it down, we certainly won\u2019t let them.\u201d
\n\u201cBuildings are just buildings \u2014 they do no harm to people or society. Why do they have to destroy them?\u201d
\nThe town of Nagu, Yunnan province, recently pushed ahead with plans to raze four minarets and the dome roof of the Najiaying Mosque, a resident said on Monday, requesting anonymity.
\nThe area is home to a sizeable enclave of Hui, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group who have reportedly come under pressure in the face of a broad crackdown.
\nPolice have also made an unspecified number of arrests over the incident and several hundred officers remained in the town as of Monday, the two witnesses said.
\nPeople in areas around the mosque had struggled intermittently with internet outages and other connectivity issues since the clashes, they added.
\nA notice issued on Sunday by the Tonghai government \u2014 which administers Nagu \u2014 said it had opened an investigation into \u201ca case that severely disrupted social management and order\u201d.
\nThe notice ordered those involved to \u201cimmediately stop all illegal and criminal acts\u201d, vowing to \u201cseverely punish\u201d anyone who refuses to turn themselves in.
\nThose who voluntarily surrender before June 6 will be treated with leniency, the notice added.
\nChina has sought to more tightly control religion since President Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago, and in its crackdown on Muslims, Beijing claims it is working to combat terrorism and extremist thought.
\nAccording to China\u2019s 2020 census, there are an estimated 11.4 million Hui ethnic minorities in China and majority of them are Muslims. They are the fourth largest ethnic block in China next to the Han Chinese at over 1.3 billion, the Zhuang at around 20 million and the Uighurs at around 12 million.
\nAn estimated one million Uighurs, Hui and other Muslim minorities have been detained in the western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region since 2017 under a government campaign, human rights groups say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD China has deployed hundreds of police and made arrests in a mostly Muslim southwestern town after clashes erupted over the planned partial demolition of a mosque, witnesses said. On Saturday, dozens of officers wielding truncheons and riot shields repelled a crowd outside the mosque that was hurling objects at them, videos circulating on social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-334407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n