Suspected ”terrorists” killed in a raid in north-west China’s Muslim-dominated Xinjiang region earlier this year had been planning an attack on the Olympics, a top official said on Sunday.
In separate comments, another high-level official from the same region said authorities had on Friday foiled a planned ”terrorist attack” on a passenger jet flying from the regional capital, Urumqi, to Beijing.
They were speaking on the sidelines of the current national parliamentary session at a briefing reported by the state news agency Xinhua.
Two militants were killed and 15 arrested in the January 27 raid in Urumqi, capital of the vast region bordering several Central Asian republics.
Five police officers were wounded in the raid when three homemade grenades were thrown at them.
”Obviously, the gang had planned an attack targeting the Olympics,” added Wang Lequan, Xinjiang’s Communist Party chief, linking the raid for the first time to the August 8 to 24 Games being held in Beijing.
The group had collaborated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an obscure grouping that is listed by the United Nations as an international terrorist group, according to Xinhua.
”The Olympic Games slated for this August is a big event, but there are always a few people who conspire to commit sabotage. It is no longer a secret now,” said Wang.
”Those terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists are to be battered resolutely, no matter what ethnic group they are from,” said Wang, who is a member of the Communist Party’s politburo.
Meanwhile Nur Bekri, chairperson of the Xinjiang regional government, told reporters about what appeared to be a planned hijacking on Friday.
He said a China Southern Airlines plane was forced to land in Lanzhou, the capital of neighbouring Gansu province, because ”some people were attempting to create an air disaster”.
The crew stopped the would-be attackers and all passengers and crew were safe, he added.
Nur did not elaborate, saying only that authorities were investigating ”who the attackers are, where they are from and what’s their background”, Xinhua reported.
”But we can be sure that this was a case intending to create an air crash,” he said, also on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress.
The Xinjiang region of 20-million people is largely populated by ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, who have traditionally opposed Beijing’s rule and clamoured for greater autonomy.
Delegates to the ongoing parliamentary session have promised to step up a crackdown on ethnic unrest, separatism and religious extremism in Xinjiang.
Eighteen alleged terrorists were killed and 17 captured in an army raid in January 2007 on what Beijing said was an ETIM training camp. — AFP
