100 detonators seized on train from Urumqi
Transport police seized 100 detonators from a passenger aboard a train travelling out of Urumqi , capital of the restive Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, state media said yesterday.
Xinhua said police on the train, which was heading for Chongqing, were alerted on Monday by the Railway Public Security Bureau in the Xinjiang capital that a passenger named Chen might be carrying dangerous materials.
They immediately carried out a search and located the man, finding 100 detonators in his luggage, Xinhua said.
The man confessed he had illegally collected and carried the detonators on to the train, Xinhua said. But the report did not explain why Chen had the devices or what he planned to do with them.
Detonators are prohibited on any type of transport on the mainland.
Xinjiang, most of whose residents are Muslim Uygurs, has been one of the most sensitive regions on the mainland for several years.
Last week officials said 82 suspected Islamic terrorists and separatists had been detained in the first six months of the year in the autonomous region. Authorities said the detainees were planning to disrupt next month's Olympic Games, a police official was quoted as saying in state media. He offered no details.
In March, mainland authorities blamed an overseas-based militant group - the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (Etim) - for a botched terror plan in which four people, including a 19-year-old Uygur, had smuggled several cans of petrol on to a China Southern Airlines flight from Urumqi to Beijing.
Police claimed the plan was to blow up the plane. The flight made an emergency landing in Lanzhou , Gansu province, after crew members were alerted by the smell of petrol.
Etim is listed by the United Nations and the United States as a terrorist organisation.
Critics and rights groups say Beijing is exaggerating security threats to crack down on dissent, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet.
