Enough awareness must be attached to the severity and complexity of the terrorism situation in the Xinjiang Urgur autonomous region. This is what Zhang Chunxian, the secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of China, said on Sunday after violence in Shache county on July 28 claimed 37 innocent lives and injured 13.

That 59 terrorists were shot dead at the same time and 215 arrested points to how horrible the situation was at the time and that the anti-terror situation there is indeed severe.

Collaboration between terrorist groups outside and within the country has been confirmed in the planning of this incident, and the so-called East Turkistan Islamic Movement has been found to play a major part, according to an investigation. This points to the nature of the incident.

That a local man could form a terrorist group and organize such an attack with the help of his overseas partners, just by spreading secessionist and extreme religious ideas among the local population suggests how vulnerable some local residents are to such evil ideas. So the complexity of the anti-terror efforts should be evident.

Of the 37 killed in the attack, two were Uygurs who tried to stop the terrorists from laying hands on innocent people, which proves, to some extent, that violence there is not a question of ethnicity.

The murder of Iman Jume Tahir by two terrorists just outside Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar after he finished presiding over morning prayers on Wednesday verifies the inhuman nature of terrorism, which knows no moral limits in realizing whatever goals it cherishes.

To such people with no moral principles, what we need to do is show an iron hand.

There is no reason that can justify the least leniency toward those who can behead an innocent person with a large knife without any hesitation. So 59 terrorists being shot dead by armed police can be interpreted as a manifestation of our attitude toward terrorism, which is the enemy of all.

Of course, an iron hand on its own will not be enough to root out this evil.

What is urgently needed is the development of the local economy, which will substantially improve the living standards of local people.

But so too is the development of clean governance, which is equally important to convince local residents that the local governments can be trusted. All these will leave no room for the existence of terrorism.

(China Daily 08/04/2014 page8)