BEIJING – A Chinese soldier was stabbed and wounded by an unidentified assailant, a rights groups said on Friday, days after a soldier was shot dead in a nearby city, attacks likely to worry stability-obsessed Beijing.
The attack on the soldier, very rare in itself in China, happened in the southwest province of Sichuan, which neighbors Tibet, a mountain region which this month passed the first anniversary of deadly riots against Chinese rule.
The soldier was stabbed while on guard outside an army camp in Leshan on Thursday, the Hong Kong Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said in a fax.
Telephone calls to the local government and police went unanswered.
A soldier on guard duty was shot dead and had his gun stolen outside a barracks last week in Chongqing, formerly part of Sichuan and the biggest city in southwestern China.
The killer escaped despite a manhunt involving more than 2,000 police.
Rioting broke out in Lhasa on March 14 last year, following several days of peaceful protests by monks, killing 19 people and sparking waves of protests across Tibetan areas. Exile groups say more than 200 people died in the crackdown.
March also marks the 50th anniversary of the self-exile of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader whom Beijing brands a separatist, after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
(Reporting by Yu Le; Editing by Nick Macfie and Valerie Lee)
