The government of Kashgar in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has announced punishments toward 15 local officials for violating disciplinary regulations, including "practicing religion," media reported on Tuesday.

One of the 15 officials was dismissed from his position for violating a rule that officials should not have any religious beliefs, the Xinhua News Agency reported, adding that the official had a bad attitude and caused a negative impact.

The discipline of the Communist Party of China (CPC) stipulates that all Party members should be atheist.

Some local government websites in Xinjiang have posted notices during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in July, calling for all CPC and League members, civil servants and students not to take part in fasting and other religious activities. Party discipline is the primary motivation for such restrictions, experts said, the Global Times reported earlier.

Another one of the 15 officials was warned and removed from position for illegally appointing religious personnel, Xinhua said.

Another official, one of the 15, was expelled from the local public security division for being "politically incorrect" and spreading audio and video containing ethnic discrimination content via WeChat, according to Xinhua.

The official is also said to have spread harmful information and rumors damaging ethnic unity online.

According to Xinhua, another local official received a warning and was removed from his position for holding an "ambiguous" attitude and inefficiently implementing counter-terrorism campaigns. Xinhua did not specify what this anonymous official had done exactly.

In a previous case, a local official in Ili was put under investigation for the same reasons in May 2014.

Batur Duwamet, the official, made public remarks that were inconsistent with the regional government's ethnic policies and held an ambiguous stance over terrorist attacks, according to the authorities.

Enwer Tursun, deputy secretary of the Party committee of Kashgar, said on Tuesday that local officials should keep in mind that "Kashgar is the frontier and main battle field of the anti-terrorism campaign." He requested officials to stay in line with Party discipline.

The city government also noted that discipline watchdogs should give harsher punishment for any violations, according to Xinhua.

Other 11 Kashgar officials received punishments of warnings or removals for discipline violations like holding illegal publications and wrongly implement government policies.

The punishment of the 15 officials was announced in a government meeting on Tuesday, with more than 800 local officials and heads of primary and high schools attending. 

Xinjiang has witnessed a number of terror attacks this year. A Xinjiang official told the Global Times previously that the irresponsible work style of a minority of local officials could be blamed for the frequent terrorist attacks.