Police have shot dead two suspects in the killing of the imam of China’s largest mosque and captured another, state media say.
Jume Tahir was the imam in Kashgar, in China’s restive Xinjiang region.
He was found dead after morning prayers at the Id Kah mosque on Wednesday.
Police said the suspects, located shortly afterwards, “resisted arrest with knives and axes”. They were “influenced by religious extremism“, Xinhua news agency said.
Xinjiang, in China’s far west, is home to the Muslim Uighur minority.
Tensions have rumbled for years between Uighurs and Beijing over large-scale Han Chinese migration and tight Chinese control.
In recent months, however, there has been a marked increase in Xinjiang-linked violence, including a market attack in the regional capital Urumqi that left more than 30 people dead.
Beijing blames these attacks on extremists inspired by overseas terror groups. Uighur activists say heavy-handed restrictions on religious and cultural freedoms are fuelling local resentment.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 