URUMQI, China, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The mayor of a city in China's northwest Xinjiang region has committed suicide, days before the region's 50th anniversary celebration, reports said Wednesday.
Mutalipu Yusupu, 43, a Muslim belonging to the Uighur ethnic group and mayor of Korla city, killed himself last Friday, the World Uighur Congress, based in Germany, said.
Police in Korla confirmed the death but refused to give a reason for the suicide or provide further information, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.
China's Vice Premier Hui Liangyu visited the city Monday as part of well-advertised celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on Oct. 1.
Dilxat Rexiti, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, said local media had not reported the suicide. He said local leaders told him Yusupu had gone to work as usual until Friday.
"We think it is strange that a high-ranking cadre died and there is no explanation. We also think it's odd that he committed suicide around the 50th anniversary," Rexiti said.
The city of 380,000 people on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert has the third-largest economy in Xinjiang, mostly due to oil production and tourism.
