China foils an attempted terror attack

• two terror suspects were killed and 15 arrested
• the terror group had been trained by and was following the orders of a Uighur separatist group based in Pakistan and Afghanistan, called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

A TERROR plot to sabotage the Beijing Olympics has been foiled, police in China said yesterday.
They revealed that a raid in January, in which two terror suspects were killed and 15 arrested, had thwarted an attempt to attack the August event.

Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in the far western Xinjiang region, said materials seized in the raid in the area's capital, Urumqi, suggested the plotters' planned "specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics". He added: "Their goal was very clear."

Earlier reports said police had found guns, home-made bombs, training materials and "extremist religious ideological materials".

Speaking at the same meeting, Nur Bekri, Xinjiang's governor, said a flight crew had prevented an apparent attempt to crash a China Southern Airlines flight from Urumqi to Beijing last week.

Chinese forces have for years been battling a low-intensity separatist movement among Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim people who are culturally and ethnically distinct from China's Han majority.

Mr Wang said the group targeted in the raid had been trained by and was following the orders of a Uighur separatist group based in Pakistan and Afghanistan, called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM – East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang. The group is labelled a terrorist organisation by the United Nations.

Although the group is not believed to have more than a few dozen members, terrorism experts say it has become influential among extremist groups using the internet to raise funds and find recruits.

China has ratcheted up anti-terror preparations ahead of the Games, with police labelling terrorism the biggest threat facing the event. Although experts say the threat is not high, given China's tight social controls, they warn that Beijing's counter-terror capabilities are weak, especially in intelligence gathering and analysis.

Mr Wang said security forces would take pro-active measures to crush terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism.

"These guys are fantasising if they think they can disrupt the Olympics," he said. "They don't have the strength."

(Scotsman, UK)