China breaks up ‘181 terrorist groups’ in Xinjiang
Communist Party in region says arrests made during year-long crackdown and 96 per cent of gangs were planning attacks
The authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang say they have broken up 181 terrorist groups since they launched a security crackdown a year ago.
The government has blamed a series of violent attacks in the region and other areas of China on separatist Islamic militants from Xinjiang.
The Communist Party committee in the region said 96.2 per cent of the gangs were discovered while they were planning attacks, the state-run news agency Xinhua said.
Some 112 suspects had turned themselves in to the police, according to the report.
The security crackdown was launched after 39 people were killed in May last year when attackers drove two four-wheel drive vehicles into a market in Urumqi and hurled explosives at passers-by. Four of the attackers were also killed.
The authorities in China have long sought to contain and control what they call religious extremists who want to establish an independent state in Xinjiang called East Turkestan.
Groups representing ethnic Uygurs in the region and human rights activists say government policies repress the minority group’s culture and religion, fuelling conflict, an allegation Beijing strongly denies.
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement has been listed by the United Nations Security Council as a terrorist organisation.
Three men were executed in March for organising a knife attack at Kunming railway station in southwest China last year that left 31 people dead.
