Culprit of Xinjiang bus blast identified
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-01-24 17:26

The bus blast case that occurred at noon of Jan. 20 in Kuytun City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has been solved, the regional public security bureau told Xinhua on Monday morning.

A 19-seat bus exploded at around 1:30 p.m on Jan. 20 at a cloverleaf on the juncture of the State Highway No. 312 and State Highway No. 217 in Kuytun, when it was traveling from Dushanzi District of Karamay City to Usu City.

A nurse checks the condition of a woman who was injured during a minibus blast on Thursday in the Kuitun of Yili Kazahk Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The blast claimed the lives of 11 passengers and injured another seven. [newsphoto]

The blast, which reportedly occurred at the rear part of the bus, killed 11 people and injured 7 others. All of the dead, including seven male and four female, have been identified. All of the injured have been out of danger and are hospitalized locally, sources with the regional public security bureau said.

According to preliminary investigation, the accident was a criminal case perpetrated by a man named Bai Qinghua, who was killed at the explosion.

A native in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Bai Qinghua was born in 1955 and became an orphan when he was very young. In March 2003, Bai had his fingers wounded when he was working at the Umuke Coal Mine in Usu City of Xinjiang, then he received 20,000 yuan (2,409 US dollars) in compensation from the colliery. Bai considered the compensation insufficient and started to vent his anger into innocent people. Before committing the crime, Bai called the owner of the coalmine to extort 200,000 yuan (24,096 US dollars) for additional compensation.

During the investigation, local police discovered a will from Bai at a hostel he used to live, which embraced a sentence of "the bus on the cloverleaf bridge was exploded by me". The police also found 27 bundles of detonators and packaging materials for explosives at Bai's room.

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