Shenzhen police detained nine suspects Saturday after a Uygur policeman was stabbed to death during an investigation Wednesday. The suspects were allegedly members of a gang that abducted children from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and forced them to steal in Shenzhen.

Abudu Saimaiti, a 26-year-old policeman with the Buji police station since his graduation from a police academy last year, got a tip Wednesday from a gang member that they had a list of names of kidnapped Xinjiang children. Saimaiti went with the man to the gang's rented apartment where Saimaiti was stabbed to death.

Police said Saimaiti had fought a brave battle with the gang before he was killed.

Police detained the suspects after a Uygur young man turned himself Friday and confessed to having helped move Saimaiti's body from the apartment. Police are searching for the rest of the gang.

(Shenzhen Daily June 8, 2004)