Minister says anti-terrorism fight to be long and difficult
Print Edition
A ONE-YEAR campaign against terrorist violence in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was launched yesterday, following Thursday’s deadly attack in Urumqi.
The campaign, approved by the central government, will last until June 2015 with Xinjiang as the major battleground, according to a televised conference by the regional government.
Meanwhile, police have identified five suspects who took part in the outrage that killed at least 39 people and injured another 94 at an open air market.
Four died in the bomb attack and their DNA had been identified. The fifth was caught by police on Thursday night in Bayingolin Mongolia Autonomous Prefecture.
The suspects had long been influenced by religious extremism, police said, and took part in illegal religious activities, and watched and listened to terrorist video and audio material. They formed a five-member terrorist gang at the end of 2013.
In order to carry out terrorist activities, they bought materials for producing explosives as well as vehicles. They made explosive devices and chose the target for their attack.
At the conference to launch the anti-terror campaign yesterday, officials said the region would adopt special measures and use special means to end the violence and uproot terrorist organizations.
The campaign will make full use of political and legal forces, army and armed police in Xinjiang. It will focus on terrorists and religious extremist groups, gun and explosive manufacturing dens and terrorist training camps.
Terrorists and extremists will be hunted down and punished.
Those involved in terrorism and extremism will be under strict control and the government will prevent terrorism and extremism from spreading to other regions.
Guo Shengkun, minister of public security and head of the national anti-terrorism leading group, said the Urumqi attack showed anti-terrorism in Xinjiang to be a long-term, complicated and difficult job. He called for preemptive efforts to contain terror in Xinjiang and strengthen people’s sense of security.
Guo later checked on security in densely populated areas in Urumqi and called on people to expose terrorists.
He also visited a funeral parlor in the city, laying a wreath for victims of the attack.
Earlier yesterday, at least 1,000 personnel in military and police vehicles took to the streets in Urumqi where assailants in two cars ploughed into people and threw explosives at the market.
Many of the soldiers being transported through the city were shouting slogans, while police vehicles sounded their sirens.
One shopkeeper told AFP that she had seen desperate shoppers fleeing from the terrorists’ vehicles on Thursday. “They ran onto the pavement, but many couldn’t get away,” she said. “The terrorists were trying to kill as many as they could, and they came here because they knew it would be crowded.”
Yesterday, only one trader had set up his stall on the street.
The United States condemned the “horrific terrorist attack” and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said there was “no justification for the killing of civilians.”
Security was tight at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital where many of those wounded in the attack were being cared for.
Some shoppers returned to the market area yesterday, saying they were there as an act of defiance against terrorism.
One elderly woman clutching a bag of spring onions told AFP: “Just because people come here and try to terrorize us, it does not mean I should have food which is not fresh.”
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