China Urumqi Suicide Bombing: Police Identify Suspects as Religious Extremists

Paramilitary policemen gesture to stop a photographer from taking pictures as they stand guard after an explosives attack hit Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of ChinaReuters

The five suspects who had carried out the bombing attack in the city of Urumqi in Xinjiang province have been identified by the police, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Nurahmat Ablipiz, Memet Memtimin, Raghimjan Memet, Memtimin Mahmat and Ablet Abdukadir had been influenced by "religious extremism", according to the agency said.

All five of them were earlier reported to have been killed in the attack, but one of them has been arrested. He is detained in Bayingolin prefecture, south of Urumqi.

The deadly attack at a vegetable market in Urumqi killed 39 people and injured over 90, when assailants drove two vehicles into a crowd and threw explosives. One of the vehicles exploded in the attack.

The suspects were brainwashed into religious extremist beliefs and allegedly took part in illegal religious activities, apart from watching and listening to audio and video material propounding terrorist violence, Xinhua said.

"Judging from the many terrorist attacks that have taken place and the relevant perpetrators, they have received support from terrorist groups outside China's borders as well as religious extremist propaganda spread via the internet," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a press conference.

Pan Zhiping, a retired expert on Central Asia at Xinjiang's Academy of Social Science, told Reuters that the attack was the deadliest in the region.

China has now announced a one-year dedicated campaign against the militants in the restive Xinjiang province. State media said the authorities will "focus on terrorists and religious extremist groups, gun and explosive manufacturing dens and terrorist training camps".

China says that the administration is working to develop Xinjiang province and seeks cooperation of the natives, but the Uighurs feel that the government is antagonistic to their traditions.

Uighur separatists are being blamed by China for this and other terrorist attacks in the country over the past year which have claimed at least 180 lives.

Previous attacks

In April, a bomb and knife attack at a railway station killed three people and injured dozens, which also coincided with the visit of President Xi Jinping to the region.

Two months ago, a group of masked attackers, dressed in black indiscriminately slashed commuters at Kunming Railway station in southwest China, killing 29 and injuring 143.

Last October, a car crashed in the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, bursting into flames and killing five people. A Filipino man and a Chinese citizen who were nearby were killed in the attack apart from three others in the car, including the driver, his wife and mother.

In 2009, raging tensions between the Han Chinese and the Uighur minority led to fierce communal riots in Xinjiang, claiming at least 150 lives.