China claims it has broken up 23 terror and extremist groups

Chinese police in Xinjiang have disbanded 23 “terror and religious extremism groups” and caught more than 200 suspects in May, state media reported yesterday, days after a deadly attack on a market that killed 31 people.

After announcing a year-long crackdown on terrorism, the central leadership in Beijing has restated its commitment to stamping out terror in Xinjiang. “The stability of Xinjiang is strategically vital to the whole country’s reform and development as well as its national security,” ran a statement on the Xinhua news agency after a meeting of the politburo of the Communist Party’s central committee.

Police raided the terror cells in the southern Xinjiang prefectures of Hotan, Kashgar and Aksu, and seized more than 200 explosive devices in raids, Xinhua said. Many of those captured were in their 20s and 30s, and had learned how to make explosives by watching online videos.

“They exchanged their experiences of making explosives and propagating jihad through chatting tools, text messages and illegal preaching sites,” Xinhua reported.

China said five suicide bombers carried out an attack at a morning vegetable market in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi on Thursday, which killed 31 people and injured 94. It was the second attack in Urumqi in

a month, after a bomb went off at a train station in late April, killing a bystander and wounding 79.

At least 180 people have been killed in attacks across China over the past year.