Eastern Turkestan, as the Uighur separatists call the territory on the West of China, the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region bordering Kazakhstan, remains a big problem for Beijing, often underestimated by the world media against the background of Tibet or Taiwan. Today the issue reminded about itself.

A border patrol station in XUAR was attacked by a group of separatists, tossing grenades in a raid that killed 16 officers and wounded others. Xinjiang province is an area where local Muslims have waged a sporadic rebellion against Chinese rule, while Beijing is conducting continuous politics towards assimilation. The attackers apparently tried to target the Beijing Olympics, which is starting this week - and Muslim rebels earlier vowed to attack the sports festival as well.

Besides the 16 dead, another 16 armed policemen were wounded, the AP said. Two of the attackers were arrested. Interestingly, the case was first reported by the state-run Xinghua news agency, but local government officials declined comment. The incident took place in Kashi, a small town that was once a stop on the Silk Road caravan routes and is also the name of the surrounding region that abuts Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.

One militant group, the Turkistan Islamic Party, pledged in a video that surfaced on the Internet last month to “target the most critical points related to the Olympics.” The group is believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, with some of its core members having received training from al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban, according to terrorism experts. In the past years Kazakhstan has repeatedly deported the persons suspected of involvement in militant groups to China, despite protests of the human rights activists.