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Xinjiang police launch security crackdown

Police in the capital of Xinjiang have launched a security crackdown ahead of the Olympics, state media reported yesterday, following an alleged attempt by terrorists to blow up a plane.

Urumqi police said the city had taken steps to guarantee security before the Olympics in August and the Xinjiang leg of the torch run, the China News Service reported.

The torch will pass through Urumqi on July 30 - the first stop in the region - before leaving on August 2, a schedule posted on the official relay website said.

A foiled plot to blow up a China Southern Airlines plane while in flight last week had been reported. That flight originated in Urumqi, where lax security apparently allowed two people to board with flammable liquids.

The city's chief of police, Chen Zhuangwei, was quoted as saying his forces would seek to prevent religious extremism, separatism and terrorism. 'We must nip in the bud negative factors that influence Olympic security.'

Riots were reported in Lhasa, Tibet, yesterday.

Xinjiang is home to the Muslim Uygur minority. Some Uygurs have called for an independent state, and the region has experienced sporadic bombings and attacks.

However, rights groups say Beijing has used the September 11 terror attacks to further repress the ethnic group.

Meanwhile, the General Administration of Civil Aviation has banned passengers from carrying liquids on flights and halted so-called 'easy boarding' services, in which people pay for priority boarding and faster security checks, state media has reported.

Airlines must not carry the checked baggage of people who fail to board, while vehicles entering zones under control of the airport must undergo a safety check.

A mainland court sentenced six people to death or life in jail in November for threatening state security in Xinjiang. Prosecutors accused the six of separatism, organising and leading a terrorist organisation and making explosives.

The six were believed to be among 17 captured by mainland security forces at an alleged terrorist training camp in the Pamir Plateau in southern Xinjiang in January last year. Another 18 - all said to be members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement - were killed in a gun battle, in which one police officer was also killed and another injured.

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