China: 4 militants shot dead after they drove car into a government building in Xinjiang

Four militants were shot dead after they attacked the ruling Communist Party of China's office inrestive Xinjiang province, official media reported, one of the deadliest terror incidents reported in months.

A car carrying the attackers crashed into the yard of the office building of the local Communist Party committee in Karakax county and "detonated an explosive device", killing one person and injuring three others, the news portal of the Xinjiang government said.

Police shot and killed the four attackers, Hong Kong based South China Morning Post quoted the report as saying. Social order had been restored, the portal report said,adding without identifying the attackers.

The attack was reported after several months of lull in terrorist violence in the province where the Uyghur Muslimswere restive for years over the settlements Han Chinese in the province, bordering Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Afghanistan. China has been blaming separatist outfit, East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), for the violent attacks in the province and the rest of the country.

ETIM was blamed for suicide blast in the Chinese Embassyin Kyrgyzstan in September this year in which one person was killed and five others injured.

In November 2015, 28 suspected militants were killed overthe course of a 56-day man hunt following an attack on acolliery in Aksu two months earlier that left 16 people dead.

In March 2014, 31 people were knifed to death at a train station in Kunming, in southwestern China, with four attackerskilled. Xinjiang had generally been quiet in 2016 with no majorreported attacks or other violent incidents.