A total of 28 terrorists were shot dead and one surrendered in battles with the police in Baicheng County, Aksu Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from September 18 to November 12, 2015, Global Times reported on Tuesday.

The hard-won battles also took the lives of five police officers and 11 civilians, and injured 18.

"Even breathing is a fortune for me now," Dilxat Mutallip, a Xinjiang police officer who was on duty during the attacks in 2015, told Global Times.

On the early morning of September 18, 2015, terrorists with guns and knives struck a coal mine in the remote area of Baicheng, killing security guards and miners. The attack was one of the deadliest acts of terror in Xinjiang in recent years.

After the attack, the terrorists fled into the craggy foothills of the Tianshan Mountains. Tens of thousands of policemen and locals were mobilized to hunt them in an area of 1,300 square kilometers.

Dilxat joined the manhunt a few days after the deadly attack. It's hard to trace the whereabouts of terrorists as the footprints were obscured or pointed in wrong directions.

Things changed when Mamatjan Tohtiniyaz, then deputy director of the Public Security Bureau of Aksu Prefecture, was captured by terrorists and tortured to death.

Mamatjan's death unveiled the terrorists' hideout. Dilxat and his colleagues were deployed near the place Mamatijan died to apprehend the terrorists.

The last battle took place on November 12, 2015, and it's during the battle that Dilxat was shot and so deadly injured that he had to be airlifted.

Remembering the painful recovery, Dilxat said he does not regret his decision of confronting the terrorists.

"If my generation does not take on the responsibility, the future generation may not enjoy true stability and peace. When needed, we are always ready," said Dilxat.

(Cover: A police car drives in the Tianshan Mountains, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. /Global Times)