According to a statement from the Khotan government in the Uighur Muslim dominated Xinjiang region, extremist forces tried to incite an uprising in a local marketplace on March 23.

"A small number of elements... tried to incite splittism, create disturbances in the market place and even trick the masses into an uprising," the statement said.

The statement said the people involved adhered to the "three evil forces", a Chinese expression that refers to separatism, religious extremism and terrorism.

"Our police immediately intervened to prevent this and are dealing with it in accordance with the law," said the statement, posted Tuesday on the Khotan government website.

The incident occurred after Chinese authorities last month warned that terrorists based in Xinjiang were planning attacks on the Beijing Olympics and as police were trying to contain unrest on a much larger scale in neighbouring Tibet.

People in both Tibet and Xinjiang have long claimed they suffer widespread repression under Chinese rule.

An Uighur exile group said the Khotan protests erupted after a Muslim businessman died in police custody and as hundreds of women gathered to demonstrate against a ban on wearing traditional head scarves.

"The Uighurs began protesting after the killing of Mutallip Hajim, who had died in police custody," Alim Seytoff, head of the US-based World Uighur Congress, told AFP.

"The women were also protesting the ban on head scarves."

The two protests included up to a total of 1,000 demonstrators, he said, adding that as many as 600 protesters had been detained.

Hajim, a wealthy jade trader and philanthropist, was taken into custody in the restive city of Khotan in January, according to the US government-backed Radio Free Asia.

But his body was turned over to his family on March 3, with police instructing them to bury him immediately and inform no one of his death, it said.

Local police and the religious affairs bureau in Khotan, also known as Hetian, either denied the reports or refused to comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.

"Mutallip Hajim, there is such a man, but I do not know anything about him," said a police officer at the Khotan public security bureau before hanging up the phone.

Xinjiang's Communist Party chief said on March 9 that a January raid on "terrorists" there had foiled a planned attack directed at the Games.

Rights groups and exiles have alleged that China is trying to stoke fears about terror attacks in Xinjiang as an excuse to silence dissent and justify tight control ahead of the Olympics.

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