BEIJING — A senior military commander in China’s restive far west has been stripped of his position on a powerful Communist Party governing body after an attack in the nation’s capital last week that claimed five lives and deeply unnerved the Chinese leadership.

The official, Gen. Peng Yong, chief of the People’s Liberation Army in Xinjiang, was removed from the region’s Standing Committee, according to a one-sentence notice on Sunday on the front page of the newspaper Xinjiang Daily. The statement provided no explanation for his replacement by Liu Lei, a veteran army official in the region.

General Peng’s demotion was announced six days after an audacious attack on the political and symbolic heart of Beijing that government officials have described as an act of terrorism. Two people were killed and 40 others were injured on Monday when a vehicle plowed through a sidewalk packed with tourists and came to a stop at the entrance to the Forbidden City, the former imperial residence that sits opposite Tiananmen Square.

According to the police, the occupants of the vehicle then set it on fire, sending up a plume of smoke that briefly obscured the iconic portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong. All three occupants of the car, described as members of the same family, died in the fire.