The government-appointed head of China’s largest mosque has been murdered after conducting morning prayers, the local government in the far western region of Xinjiang has said. State media report on Thursday that Jume Tahir, the Uighur imam of the 600-year-old Id Kah mosque in the city of Kashgar, was killed on Wednesday by “three thugs influenced by religious extremist ideology”, the Xinjiang state website Tianshan said.
Police launched an all-out investigation and shot dead two of the alleged assailants while capturing the other,
Tianshan said. Tianshan added Tahir’s killing was “premeditated” and that the suspects intended to commit a “ruthless murder”.
Tahir was found dead in a pool of blood outside the mosque’s prayer house, US-based Radio Free Asia reported earlier on its website.
