BEIJING - A day after a sport utility vehicle mowed down dozens of pedestrians near Tiananmen Square and exploded at the foot of the nation’s most hallowed monument, killing five people, authorities appeared to be focusing on suspects from Xinjiang, the region in China’s far west that has been the scene of increasingly violent resistance to Beijing’s hardline policies.
Officials increased security at important intersections, subway stations and tourist sites across the capital, but they remained silent about an episode that many Chinese believe was a deliberate attack on the political and symbolic heart of the nation.
The episode could affect relations between China’s ethnic Han majority and the Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uighurs, many of whom complain about religious restrictions and the flood of Han migrants that has dramatically shifted Xinjiang’s demographic balance.
Throughout the day, censors deleted photographs and commentary about what happened on social media.
The apparent attack took place less than two weeks before a Nov. 9 meeting of party leaders at the Great Hall of the People, which is close to where the car exploded. Just hours before the havoc, President Xi Jinping and other members of the Politburo Standing Committee attended the opening session of the National Women’s Congress in the same building.
By Tuesday morning, there was no evidence of the mayhem caused by the vehicle, which struck and killed two people and wounded 38 as it hurtled more than 400 yards along a sidewalk thronged with tourists. Some witnesses said the driver warned pedestrians by honking as the car sped forward. Reuters quoted a witness who said the vehicle was trailing a white banner with black letters.
All three people in the car were killed after it exploded near a row of ornamental marble bridges that once provided access to the former imperial residence, known as the Forbidden City. On Tuesday, there was no visible sign of impact on or around the bridges, suggesting the explosion was caused by a combustible substance ignited by the vehicle’s occupants after it came to a stop.
Indications that investigators were focusing on Uighurs emerged from a police notice sent to Beijing hotels Monday night warning them be on the lookout for two ethnic Uighurs.
The notice, which was posted online, included the names and hometowns of two suspects. One of those locations, Shanshan County, was the scene of a violent clash between protesters and the police in the summer that left dozens dead.
The hometown of the other suspect was listed as Pishan County, near the jade-trading city of Hotan, where seven people, including two women, were killed during a 2011 clash between residents and police.
The South China Morning Post, citing several hotels in Beijing, said authorities were seeking information about five license plates from Xinjiang and as many as eight people, all but one of them with Uighur names.
The Beijing Public Security Bureau did not respond to phone calls nor a faxed request for comment.
An official who answered the phone Tuesday at a station house in Pishan said one of the suspects, Yusupu Aihemaiti, had been living on a farm affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army but that he had left last month. The officer added that investigators had stopped by Monday seeking more information. Pressed for further details, the man hung up.
A police official in Shanshan County, the home of the second named suspect, Yusupu Wumaierniyazi, declined to discuss the case.
Information for this article was contributed by Patrick Zuo and Frank Ye of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 10/30/2013