*BEIJING: *China’s violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang will builda “Great Wall” around its borders to prevent the infiltration of militantsfrom outside the country, state media reported on Tuesday citing theregional governor.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Xinjiang in the past few years inviolence between Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkiclanguage, and ethnic majority Han Chinese, especially in the heavily Uighursouthern part of Xinjiang.

China blames the violence in Xinjiang on extremists and separatists, someof whom it says have links to groups outside the country.

Rights groups and Uighur exiles say it is more a product of Uighurfrustration at Chinese controls on their culture and religion. China deniesany repression.

Xinjiang governor Shohrat Zakir said Xinjiang would step up border measuresto create a “Great Wall”, the official *China Daily* reported.

“We will try our best to leave no gaps or blind spots in social securitymanagement and ensure the key areas remain absolutely safe,” he said at theopening of the regional assembly’s annual session.

Technology along the border would be improved and roads and otherinfrastructure increased, Shohrat Zakir said.

“The overall situation was stable in 2017, which made people feel safer,”he said. “We won’t allow separatism to stage a comeback and will ensurereligious extremism never rises again from the ashes and terrorist attacksare doomed to failure.”

The “Great Wall” comments were similar to those President Xi Jinping madelast year during the annual session of the country’s parliament, where hetold Xinjiang lawmakers of the need to build a “great wall of iron” tosafeguard stability.

Xinjiang has been relatively quiet over the past year or so after a spateof incidents, which has coincided with a massive increase in security,including collecting DNA and other biometric data from the whole population.