Only hours after the weekend’s bloody clashes in Urumqi and well before the authorities announced the horrendous death toll, Beijing had unequivocally named the perpetrators of the unrest in the capital of its northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Riot aftermath: people walk past a burnt-out car and bus after weekend clashes in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province

Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, blamed what it called the “pre-meditated and organised violence” on exiled leaders of the Uighurs, the predominant Muslim people in the region.