The city of Urumqi adopted a curfew Tuesday night to avoid further chaos amid the ongoing unrest, said Wang Lequan, secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on Tuesday.

A "comprehensive traffic control" was imposed from 9:00 p.m. Tuesday to 8:00 a.m. Wednesday.

"Some Han people took to streets in Urmuqi today, disrupting social orders," he said in a televised speech. "This is not necessary at all."

"All the employers in the city should call on their employees to go back home. Ethnic confrontation should be definitely prohibited," he said.

In addition, Wang also called for avoiding confrontation between ethnic groups in the region.

"Neither the people of Han nor Uygur ethicalities are willing to see the Han people being attacked. It is the same the other way around. If the Han people attack the innocent Uygur people, it is also heart-breaking."

"The family members of those who were involved in the violence are innocent. We should be cool-headed and do not be fooled by the enemies," he said.

"Our targets should be the hostile forces at both home and abroad and criminals, rather than our own brothers and sisters of different ethnic backgrounds."

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2009)