Pakistan camp link to China attack that killed 11

MUSLIM extremists trained in Pakistan have been blamed for an attack on Sunday that left 11 people dead in the city of Kashgar in the restive Xinjiang region of western China.

Chinese authorities have not yet pinpointed suspects behind clashes a day earlier in the city that killed seven people, including one of two men who allegedly hijacked a truck and rammed it into a crowd.

The weekend violence raised tensions across the Xinjiang region, which has been under tight security since 2009 when almost 200 people were killed in fighting between Han Chinese and minority Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group that sees Xinjiang as its homeland.

The German-based World Uyghur Congress said it feared the violence could prompt a government crackdown on Uighurs, who are still blamed for the unrest two years ago.

Kashgar officials issued warrants and offered $16,000 for information leading to the arrest of two Uighur suspects allegedly seen fleeing the scene of Sunday's attack. The city said a "group of armed terrorists" had stormed a restaurant and killed the owner and a waiter before setting fire to the building.

The suspects then ran out into the street and stabbed civilians at random, killing another four people and injuring 12, officials said. Police fired at the suspects, killing four at the scene. A fifth died later in a hospital.

Police said an initial investigation showed members of the group allegedly behind Sunday's attack had been trained in explosives and firearms in Pakistani camps run by the banned East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a militant group advocating independence for Xinjiang. China says the group is allied with al-Qaeda.

Pakistan, a key ally to China, condemned the violence. A foreign ministry statement said it was "fully confident" the people of Xinjiang and the Chinese government "will succeed in frustrating evil designs of the terrorists, extremists and separatists".

Xinjiang has been beset by ethnic conflict and a sometimes-violent separatist movement by Uighurs, who say they have been marginalised as more majority Han Chinese move in.

The region is China's Central Asian frontier, bordering countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia.