"Police officers and armed police forces exercised massive restraint and handled the incident according to the law," he said.

Social order in the affected-counties is returning to normal, however, local residents said they are still haunted by fears.

At the Qiangtang Street, one of the worst-hit areas in the Aba unrest in Sichuan, shop owners were seen cleaning wreckages on Wednesday morning.

Recalling the tumultuous Sunday, Peng Yongfan, owner of the Yongli Shopping Center, looked hopeless and said he lost more than five million yuan (about 707,000 U.S. dollars) of property in the commotion.

"I have nothing left now except the clothes I'm wearing," said the 54-year-old man, whose head was wrapped with gauze.

A mob of about 100 broke into Peng's shopping center at around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

"They destroyed counters with iron bars and rocks, and plundered my goods. And they poured petrol on those they could not take away and burnt them," said Feng.

The businessman brought a disfigured steel safe from the storehouse behind the shopping center, showing it to Xinhua reporters.

"I found this after the mob went away, and the 186,000 yuan of cash turned into ashes," he said.

"I have been doing business here for 18 years and my business was good. How can I've foreseen such misfortune?"

After the series of orchestrated violence, residents in Lhasa, Gannan and Aba are struggling to recover. Latest counts by the Tibetan regional government said 325 people were injured in the riot, which also claimed lives of 13 innocent civilians. The number of mobsters who surrendered to Lhasa police rose to more than 170 by 10 p.m., Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2008)