Update | China arrests Uygur suspect who planned ‘bomb attack’ on shopping mall
Suspect from Xinjiang 'confesses' to training in Syria for planned attack in Hebei province
Police foiled a terrorist plot to bomb a shopping mall in Hebei province, state media said on Monday, as it aired a “confession” by a suspect from the far western region of Xinjiang who said he had trained for the attack in Syria.
The suspect from Kashgar said in a eight-minute video on China Central Television that he had fled to Syria via Turkey for “bomb-making training” in early 2013. He said he returned to China earlier this year, staying in Shijiazhuang, where he plotted to blow up a shopping mall.
The video showed him with a shaved head and wearing a yellow vest from a detention centre.
The case and confession could not be independently verified, but the report underscored Beijing’s concern that the threat of terror attacks was spreading.
It also highlighted its fight to prevent locals from joining overseas terrorist groups.
The report said the suspect had met a member of the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement who talked to him about achieving martyrdom through violence, and that when he arrived in Turkey he was put in contact with a militant group based in Syria.
“I wanted to launch a bomb attack, and I hoped to get some funds for it,” he said.