Several hundred people were taken into custody after protests were held at two locations in Khotan prefecture in Khotan city on March 23-24 and Qaraqash county on March 23, witnesses were quoted as saying by the US government funded Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Sources reported that the demonstrations followed the death in custody of a wealthy Uyugur jade trader and philanthropist, Mutallip Hajim, 38.

Police returned his body to relatives March 3 after two months in custody, saying he had died in hospital of heart trouble.

The unrest comes two weeks after ethnic Tibetans in neighbouring provinces staged protests against China, prompting a deadly crackdown and countless arrests.

In both areas, RFA said, the protesters were demanding that authorities scrap a bid to ban head scarves, stop using torture to suppress Uyugur demands for greater autonomy, and release all political prisoners.

In Khotan, it said, the crowd of several hundred protesters comprised mainly women.

Hotel employees said police produced lists of alleged protesters, mainly women, and told them to report to police if anyone using tried to register as a guest under any of those names.

It quoted sources as saying that there were six casualties but gave no details. However, it said police in Khotan city and its Chinbagh district, contacted by telephone, denied any protests had taken place.

In Qaraqash, a police officer on duty told it that protesters there "peacefully dispersed."

"There were no injuries or deaths, and we persuaded the people gathered for the protest to leave," the officer was quoted as saying.

Uyugurs, who number more than 16 million, constitute a distinct, Turkic-speaking, Muslim minority in northwestern China and Central Asia.

China, the radio noted, has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.

In March, Chinese authorities announced that they had foiled a plot by Uyugur terrorists targeting the Beijing

Olympics.

In the early 1990s, Uyugurs in Xinjiang launched large-scale riots, attacking and killing Chinese officials.

Chinese authorities alleged that 162 people were killed and 440 injured in the riots that prompted a harsh crackdown.