Police detain 9 terror suspects with fake passports
Print Edition
SHANGHAI police in November arrested nine wanted terrorists from northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as they sought to leave the country on Turkish passports.
Twelve other people — two Chinese and 10 Turks — were also arrested in connection with the case, the Chinese edition of the Global Times newspaper reported yesterday.
Local police declined to comment on the case when contacted by Shanghai Daily, but Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said yesterday that the report was “extremely accurate.”
According to the report, 10 Turkish nationals traveled to China last year, where they sold their passports to another Turk for US$2,000 apiece. The 11th person then modified the documents and sold them to the nine terror suspects — all of whom are from the Uygur ethnic group in Xinjiang — for 60,000 yuan (US$9,700) each.
The suspects were arrested at Pudong International Airport as they attempted to board flights to Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the report said.
Police also confiscated several electronic devices from the suspects, some of which contained audio and video materials relating to terrorism, it said.
One of the suspects allegedly confessed to distributing the materials to foment ethnic hatred.
The nine Uygurs are currently in police detention on suspicion of organizing, leading and joining terrorism groups, while the Turks were arrested on the charge of human smuggling, it said.
Islamist militants from Xinjiang have been blamed for several terrorist attacks in China.
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement claimed responsibility for an attack at a railway station in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, on April 30 last year in which three people were killed. It also claimed the assault in Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square in October 2013, in which three tourists and three terrorists were killed.
In September, Indonesian police said they had arrested four Chinese Uygurs who were suspected of being linked to the Islamic State jihadist group.
The four entered the country on forged Turkish passports, they said.
On Monday, police in Xinjiang shot dead six attackers who were armed with explosive devices in a business district of Shule County.
“Fighting illegal immigration is the common desire of the international community and is the Chinese government’s consistent position,” Hong said.
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