Homemade explosives, Molotov cocktails and knives seized by police are put on show after authorities cracked a major terrorist cell headed by the "East Turkistan" separatist movement. The group was involved in the violent attack targeting border police in China's westernmost city of Kashgar, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, that killed 17 people and injured 15 in 2008, the Ministry of Public Security said Thursday. Photo: Xinhua

By Zhu Shanshan and Peng Pu

China said Thursday that it had broken up a terrorist cell in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in what experts described as a victory in the country's anti-terror efforts, almost a year since deadly riots in the regional capital Urumqi left nearly 200 dead.

Police recently detained more than 10 terrorists of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Wu Heping, spokesman of the Public Security Ministry, told reporters in Beijing. The United Nations in 2002 listed ETIM as a terrorist organization with ties to Al Qaeda.

Authorities said the group was behind an attack targeting border police in Kashgar in Xinjiang that killed 17 people and injured 15 in 2008, as well as behind several bombings that killed two civilians and injured two police in the region's Kuqa County in the same year.

Police identified Xinjiang natives Abdurixit Ablet, 42, and Imin Semai'er, 33, as ringleaders among the detainees.

The two men and their aides confessed under interrogation that they had traveled through different provinces in China preaching extremism, recruiting and training members, assembling bombs and hoarding knives, axes and other weapons, and raising money for a series of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang's Kashgar, Hotan and Aksu cities, from July to October, Wu said.

After police thwarted their plots, they fled to southern Guangdong and Yunnan provinces and made contact with ETIM leaders via e-mails, asking for roadmaps as they attempted to slip across the border.

At least three members of the group had attempted to flee the country and were repatriated in December, Wu said, without specifying where they had been repatriated from.

Cambodia in December returned 20 Uyghurs to China, who they said had illegally entered the country, Reuters reported.

Wu said the arrest of the terrorist group frustrated the terrorists' sabotage plot and eliminated a potential public safety threat in a timely manner.

"The unearthing of this large terrorist group again proves that ETIM and other terrorist organizations are a major terror threat that our nation faces at present and in the future," Wu said in the press conference Thursday morning.

He added that Chinese security forces will live up to the resolution of the UN assembly and the UN Security Council in fighting terrorism.

Terrorists from the ETIM inside and outside China were responsible for more than 200 terrorism attacks in Xinjiang between 1990 and 2001, claim-ing 162 lives and injuring 440, according to statistics from the Information Office of the State Council.

Dilxat Raxit, of the World Uyghur Congress, claimed, however, that the announcement was "deliberately timed to associate the Uyghur cause with terrorism in front of an international audience, and the investigation of the case lacks transparency and evidence," according to AFP.

"Announcing this now, just before July 5 (the anniversary of the Urumqi riots of 2009), shows that China wants to push the perception that all Uyghurs and all Muslims are terrorists," Raxit told AFP Thursday.

Li Wei, director of the Institute of Security and Strategic Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that the timing has nothing to do with the riot last year.

"The announcement indicates that China has established sound coordination with the international community on cracking down on terrorism. China's counter-terror concerns can be better understood by the world," Li said.

Li said the progress announced by authorities Thursday marked a victory of China's anti-terrorism efforts, but he also cautioned that it is a new alert that the overseas ETIM terrorists have not disappeared nor ceased their intent to carry out terrorism.

The central government vowed to transform Kashgar into an economic development zone in May. Preferential investment and taxation policies will be introduced to boost investment in the city. Specific policies will not be announced at the earliest until the end of the year.

Ma Dazheng, director of the Xinjiang Development Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Thursday that the plans indicated the determination of the central government to revamp Xinjiang economically and socially.

But he conceded that the negative effect of the riot last year appears to have lingered in many local residents' minds.

"The security situation is under control in Urumqi, but it relies on police presence. To some extent, peace in Urumqi, especially the peace of mind of the local people, is still fragile," he said.

Pan Zhiping, director of the Central Asia Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Xinjiang Bureau, told the Global Times that though the police move marks a victory in the country's anti-terrorism endeavors, China should remain vigilant against terrorism.

"Terrorist activities are not totally wiped out. What we should do is minimize the casualties and the damage they could cause," he said.

The July 5 riot in Urumqi claimed the lives of 197 people and left more than 1,600 injured. Most victims were people of the Han ethnicity. The riot-ers paralyzed public transportation, setting fire to buses and private cars and houses.

Some 100 suspects have been arrested and 14 people have been sentenced to death for murder and other crimes committed during the riot.

Song Shengxia contributed to this story