Yarkand Massacre

The Yarkand Massacre was an episode of violence that began on 28 July 2014 in Yarkant County, Kashgar Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, and lasted for several days, as Chinese police quelled the local unrest.

The official death toll listed 96 fatalities with 37 innocent people (including 35 Han and 2 Uyghurs) and 59 thugs or terrorists. The World Uyghur Congress and Apple Daily estimated based on interviews that 1,000 to 5,000 people died.

The incident
On 2 August 2014, Chinese authorities reported that 37 innocent people (including 35 Han and 2 Uyghurs) and 59 thugs or terrorists (96 fatalities total) were killed in the 28 July violence in Yarkant County, Xinjiang, which the state media labelled an "organized, premeditated, well-planned, and vicious... terrorist incident, organized by a gang with ties to an overseas movement (Turkistan Islamic Party) which attacked local police stations and government offices".

Independent media as well as the World Uyghur Congress based on interviews with several residents reported that the incident started with a protest march following an extrajudicial killing of a Uyghur family of five during house to house searches in Bashkent Township (Beshkent Town), triggered by reports of illegal prayer gatherings. The protests were reported as peaceful at first, but escalated due to Chinese authorities' use of excessive force. Local residents said in an Agence France-Presse report that in the nearby Elishku Township (Elishqu Village) about 500 people, including some refugees from Bashkent Township, armed with knives, axes and other farming tools were marching through the streets on 28 July, when they were attacked by a group of military police armed with assault rifles. Mahmouti, a local resident, heard the police yell "back off" to the crowd, followed by continuous gunfire, and then intermittent gunfire for about an hour. Yusup, another local farmer, said that none of the people who had gone to the demonstration had returned, and he estimated that about 1,000 people were missing. Further fatalities occurred during house to house searches that followed over several days and were reported in four villages in the region (those villages included Erik, Hangdi, and Dongbag, or No. 14, 15 and 16 in the township), although the reports differ on whether most fatalities occurred on the first day or in subsequent days.

The Apple Daily reported that sources close to military intelligence said that the violence in Yarkant County, Xinjiang was a massacre in which between 3,000 and 5,000 people from four villages were slaughtered, with no survivors. The exiled president of the World Uyghur Congress claimed that more than 2,000 people died. The official casualty toll listed 96 deaths, with 59 rioters and 37 bystanders.

Aftermath
Investigation into the events has been made difficult due to the Chinese government's denial of it and censorship of independent and social media. Foreign journalists who attempted to investigate this incident were denied access, and later reported being unable to find unintimidated locals willing to talk to them. Internet and mobile access in the region was severely restricted for an unspecified length of time after the incident. Activists in China who provided information about it to international organizations have been arrested and sentenced for revealing "state secrets".

In 2016, the World Uyghur Congress called the incident was "the deadliest episode [in the region] since the unrest in Urumqi in July 2009".

In 2018, Apple Daily reported that several involved officials were detained on accusations of bribery.