CHINESE SAYS its security forces have broken up a terrorist network in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, nearly a year after ethnic clashes in the regional capital Urumqi left around 200 dead, mostly Han Chinese.
More than 10 members of the ring who were planning attacks across Xinjiang had been rounded up, Wu Heping, a spokesman for the ministry of public security, told the Xinhua news agency.
Explosives, knives and other equipment was seized during the arrest.
The group was involved in a violent attack on border police in Kashgar that killed 17 people and injured 15 in 2008, and had also detonated explosives in supermarkets, hotels and government buildings, killing two civilians and two police officers in Kuqa County, he said.
“The break-up of the major terrorist ring proves, once again, terrorist groups including the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement [ETIM] remains the principal terrorist threat facing China at present and in the near future,” Mr Wu said.
Eastern Turkestan is how many Uighurs refer to Xinjiang.
Uighurs account for nine million of Xinjiang’s 20 million residents, and many resent the influx of Han Chinese into the region, and government restrictions on their Muslim religion.
In July last year, local Uighurs turned on Han Chinese in Urumqi after a protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China that left two Uighurs dead. Beijing says the violence was plotted by overseas Uighur groups.
The landlocked province is about three times the size of France and has China’s second-highest oil and natural gas reserves. It is strategically located at China’s borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan and several central Asian states.
Mr Wu identified the two ringleaders as Abudourexiti Abulaiti (42) and Yiming Semaier (33).
“China’s public security bodies will resolutely support and put into effect UN Security Council resolutions, will strike severely against terrorist activities and earnestly maintain social stability,” he added.
The group had been planning a series of attacks in the Xinjiang cities of Kashgar, Hotan and Aksu, but their plans were thwarted and some of them fled, he said.
China has linked the crackdown on Uighur separatist groups to the broader campaign against Islamic extremists in the region, but Uighur exiles accuse China of exaggerating the threat posed by armed separatists to justify harsh crackdowns in the region.
China replaced its top official in Xinjiang, the hardline Wang Lequan, in April.