Kokyar

— On Feb. 16, authorities in nearby Keriye (Yutian) county announced a move to add 254 additional auxiliary members to its police force, with 204 jobs reserved for ethnic Uyghurs and 50 spaces held for Han Chinese, local media reports said. Speaking to RFA, a police officer in Keriye’s Kokyar township confirmed the recruitment drive was under way. “More than 200 [auxiliary] policemen will be recruited soon to patrol the roads, streets, and neighborhoods day and night,” RFA’s source said. “They will also be stationed at various checkpoints to check people coming into the township and other townships in the county.”

— Next day we marched to Kokyar, twelve miles. Route west, across a sandy ridge two miles off, and then up the gully of the Kokyar river, which flows in a narrow winding valley from south to north, between high ridges of sand and gravel, to the town itself which is the capital of this district.