Chinese authorities announced late Thursday that 50 people died from the series of Xinjiang blast last Sunday.

China's state-run media initially reported that the Sunday explosions in the western part of the Xinjiang province left two dead and a hundred people injured.

On late Thursday, however, New China News Agency raised the death toll to 50, reporting that 40 rioters, including six civilians and four police officers died in the four explosions across the Luntai county.

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Chinese police has called the Xinjiang blasts as "organized and serious" acts of terrorism, according to a local newspaper's new account of the incident.

The restive province has been beset by a series of deadly encounters between the Muslim ethnic minority called the Uighur and the mandarin-speaking Han Chinese population over the last year.

In response, the central government has issued a massive crackdown against what it claims a terrorist separatist movement linked to radical Islamist groups overseas.

But Uighur rights movements insist that much of the violence stem from the repressive policies against the Uighur language and the ethnic discrimination that has left the minority economically disadvantaged.

Radio Free Asia, which runs an Uighur language service, reported of a mass forced eviction of Uighur residents in the region to make way for the Han Chinese majority. The service also reported of a Communist Party official who has imposed curfews as well as closed down schools and offices in the area.

Reports have indicated that anti-government sentiments have been escalating in Xinjiang. According to LA Times, the Chinese government has been offering rewards worth thousands of dollars to anyone who reports any act of violent separatism.

Independent verification of the Xinjiang blast accounts is difficult since foreign journalists are restricted from accessing the region. Authorities also cut off phone services and internet connection, while locals refuse to talk with foreign media regarding the violent incident, LA Times reported.

TagsXinjiang, Islam in China, War Conflict