Two people were reportedly killed and a few more injured in simultaneous explosions across the region of Xinjiang on Sunday, local Chinese media reported.

According to Tianshan news portal, a government-run media outlet, explosions simultaneously hit three separate locations in Xinjiang province around 5 p.m. on Sunday.

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The report did not identify the locations of the explosions, but according to the South China Morning Post, all three appear to be coordinated acts of terrorism.

Investigations are on-going for the explosions that wounded an unspecified number of people, local media reported.

Xinjiang, a relatively restive region in northwest China, has suffered from an escalation of unrest in recent months due to tensions between the Muslim minority Uyghurs and the Han Chinese residents of the region.

The bombings coincide with the release of an order that instructs local governments across China on dealing with religious extremism and acts of terrorism, condemning these as grave threats to the country's social stability and security.

The instructions released on the websites of the Ministry of Public Security and China's highest court and top prosecution office called on police authorities, prosecutors and court officials to determine between ordinary religious activities and acts of religious extremism.

China, which the Communist Party has officially declared as an atheist country, has long tolerated religious practices among minorities.

The order is careful to instruct local officials to avoid discriminating religious and ethnic minorities, citing that officials should withhold the dignity of criminal suspects and defendants.

Last week, three Uyghurs were sentenced to death and another to life imprisonment after they were convicted of plotting the knife attack that left 29 people dead in Kunming Railway Station earlier this year, CNN reported.

In July, about 800 Uyghurs were detained after a crackdown that aimed to suppress Islamist extremism in the region.

According to BBC, dozens were killed during a violent clash between the local police and Uighurs in the city of Kashgar. It was followed by the murder of an imam in a mosque in Kashgar, the largest in China.

Just a few days ago, Ilham Tohti, an Uighur scholar, was charged with inciting the overthrow of the government and of spreading separatist ideologies.

Xinjiang is home to over 100,000 Uighur minorities, a Muslim Turkic group that has been accused by the Chinese government of inciting religious extremism and terror acts and seeking to establish an independent state.

Activists have been insisting, however, that the central government's repressive policies in the region are causing the unrest.

TagsChinese Muslim, Xinjiang, uighur ethnic minority