BEIJING
In a crackdown on 23 groups in China’s restive northwestern Xinjiang region, police have arrested over 200 people suspected of ‘’terror and religious extremism’’ in May, China's national news agency reported Monday.
According to Xinhua, more than 200 explosive devices were seized during the capture of the groups’ members in Xinjiang's Hotan, Kashgar and Aksu prefectures.
The suspects, many of whom were in their 20s and 30s, had learned to make explosives by watching online videos, according to Xinhua, and allegedly exchanged messages through chatting tools.
Legal and public security authorities in Xinjiang issued a joint statement Saturday, calling for suspects to surrender to get more ‘lenient’ punishments.
A yearlong ‘’anti-terrorism’’ campaign - focusing on Xinjiang, home to the Turkic Uighur Muslim ethnic group - was launched by China’s central government Friday and will be in effect until June 2015.
The campaign came after Thursday’s attack, in which 39 people were killed and 94 others injured when two off-road vehicles ploughed through a market in regional capital Urumqi. Witnesses said that explosives were thrown from the vehicles, which later blew up.
The death toll was the highest in the region since 2009 riots in Urumqi killed almost 200 people.
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