| |
China foils terrorist plot to
kidnap Olympians
Beijing—Chinese authorities have detained 45 East Turkestan
“terrorist” suspects, and foiled plots to carry out suicide bomb
attacks and kidnap athletes to disrupt the Beijing Olympics, a
police spokesman said on Thursday.
Uighur militants have been agitating to establish an independent
East Turkestan in China’s predominantly Muslim northwestern region
of Xinjiang bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Chinese authorities cracked two “terrorist” groups, one of which
belonged to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Ministry of
Public Security spokesman Wu Heping told a news conference in
Beijing.
ETIM was listed by the United Nations as a terrorist group in 2002
and has links to Al Qaeda.
The group asked its members to do trial runs using poisoned meat,
poison gas and remote control explosive devices, Wu said.
Their aim was “to create an international incident with the goal of
disrupting the Olympic Games,” the spokesman said.
The first group, led by Aji Muhammat, bought explosive materials and
carried out 13 test explosions, Wu said without giving the
nationality of the ringleader.
Suspects in custody confessed they were ordered to commit suicide if
arrested, he said.
Police detained 10 suspects and seized 16,000 yuan ($2,300) in cash
and a large quantity of “Holy War” training materials, Wu said.
Several other suspects are on the run.
At the end of last year, the group ordered its members to enter
China and had planned to be ready by April to carry out “terrorist”
activities starting from May in Beijing and Shanghai, using
explosives and poison, the spokesman said.
In the second case, authorities in Xinjiang’s regional capital
Urumqi detained 35 suspects including Abdurahman Tursun, the
ringleader of a “terrorist group” that had plotted “to kidnap
foreign journalists, tourists and athletes during the Olympics,” Wu
said.
Authorities had also seized 9.51 kg (21 lb) of explosives, eight
detonators and some “Holy War” propaganda material, Wu said, adding
that the group had also planned to carry out suicide bomb attacks in
Urumqi and other cities in China, the spokesman said.
It had been secretly recruiting people “willing to sacrifice their
lives for Jihad,” or holy war, Wu said.
“We are facing a real terrorist threat. All walks of life and the
public should maintain a high degree of vigilance,” the spokesman
added.
Oil-rich Xinjiang is home to 8 million Uighurs — a Turkic, largely
Islamic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central
Asia. Many resent the growing presence and economic grip of Han
Chinese.—Agencies
|
