Terror crackdown goes nationwide
Print Edition
CHINA is vowing a yearlong campaign against terrorism, just days after a suicide attack in the northwestern region of Xinjiang that left 39 people dead.
The campaign is a nationwide expansion of a similar crackdown in the region which began last Friday.
“With Xinjiang as the center, and with cooperation from other provinces, we will start a yearlong specialized hard-strike campaign against violent terrorism,” the ministry of public security said yesterday.
The ministry has told police in Xinjiang and in the rest of the country to cooperate in the joint offensive against terrorism.
Meanwhile, police have busted 23 terror and religious extremist groups and caught over 200 suspects this month, Xinjiang’s public security department said.
The groups were uncovered in south Xinjiang’s Hotan, Kashgar and Aksu prefectures, where the majority of the population are Muslim Uygurs. More than 200 explosive devices were also seized.
Many of the suspects were in their 20s and 30s who watched terror videos and learned how to make explosives, sharing such information on the Internet.
Last year, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, listed by the United Nations Security Council as a terrorist group, produced 107 terror video and audio clips, some of which were spread to China, said Nuriman Rozi, a senior police officer with Xinjiang’s public security department.
Many of the suspects seized in recent years were influenced by such material before carrying out terrorist activities, he said.
Police are being urged to prevent further attacks and to prevent forces of terrorism and religious extremism from spreading from Xinjiang to the rest of the country.
Under a preemptive strategy, police nationwide will pool information for early identification of terrorist groups and their members.
They will work with other government departments and communities to stem the sources of terrorism and identify security loopholes and other weak points.
Police will step up armed patrols and security control at crowded public places and tighten management of explosives and weapons.
They will improve coordination among police departments in railway, civil aviation and transport sectors in a bid to better investigate cases, hunt down suspects and handle emergencies.
The ministry also instructed local police to properly implement policies on ethnic minorities. They should only target terrorists and religious extremists and must protect the legal rights and interests of ethnic minority people. They are also urged to improve public awareness of anti-terrorism efforts.
Xinjiang saw its bloodiest day in five years last Thursday when 39 people were killed and more than 90 injured in the terror attack in the regional capital Urumqi.
One suspect has been arrested while four others died when they crashed cars into a marketplace and threw explosives.
Legal, procuratorate and public security authorities in Xinjiang issued a joint statement on Saturday, calling for anyone involved in terrorist activities to surrender in order to get lenient sentences.
The statement forbids people to organize, lead or join any terrorist group. It bans people from implementing or instigating terrorist violence.
It also prohibits people from directly or indirectly funding, supporting or harboring terrorist activities, terrorist organizations and terrorists.
The statement also bans people from manufacturing, trading, transporting, publicizing, copying and holding propaganda materials or electronic storage devices containing material showing violent content or religious extremism.
Manufacturing, trading, transporting, storing and holding guns, ammunition, flammable and combustible materials as well as knives under strict control are also prohibited.
More than 20 provinces, five autonomous regions and four municipalities have conducted anti-terrorism drills since March.
Most were staged in airports, railways stations and subway stations with scenarios including knife attacks and hijackings.
In the latest show of public power, about 300,000 volunteers in Shanghai were mobilized to help safeguard security at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia on May 20 and 21.
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