China claims smashing Xinjiang terror ring

BEIJING - China has smashed a terror group that killed 17 people in an attack in Xinjiang region two years back, Xinhua reported Thursday quoting a security ministry official.

The group was involved in the attack targeting border police in Kashgar city in Xinjiang that killed 17 people and injured 15 in 2008, Wu Heping, a spokesman with the ministry of public security told a press conference Thursday.

“The break-up of the major terrorist ring proves, once again, terrorist groups including the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) remains the principal terrorist threat facing China at present and in the near future,” said Wu.

Chinese police have caught more than ten members of the terrorist group, including two ring leaders, said Wu.

The two ringleaders, both natives of Xinjiang, were identified as Abdurixit Ablet, 42, and Imin Semai’er, 33.

The two men and their aides confessed to police that they had prepared knives, axes and self-made explosives, and planned to launch a series of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang’s Kashgar, Hotan and Aksu from July to October 2009, according to Wu.

After the police foiled their plans, they fled to China’s southern provinces of Guangdong and Yunnan and contacted leaders of ETIM terrorist group by email, Wu said.