BEIJING - Two thugs stabbed to death a policewoman in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The motorcycle-mounted attackers used sharp weapons to "cruelly attack and kill" the policewoman, China Central Television (CCTV) said on its official microblog on Monday.

Media did not specify the ethnicity of the policewoman but judging by her name, she was an ethnic?Uygur. CCTV citied a colleague of the woman as saying she was two months pregnant.

The attack occurred on Friday near a market in Pishan county, Hotan prefecture.

The attack on the policewoman follows the killing of a Uygur imam in July. In September, police said they shot dead 40 rioters, some of whom were seeking to blow themselves up, after explosions went off in Luntai county.

Almost 100 people died in violence in Xinjiang's Shache county in July, which terrorists with links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) – a terrorist group listed by the United Nations?– took responsibility.

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