23 terror, religious extremism groups busted in China's Xinjiang

The Chinese Police have busted 23 terror and religious extremism groups in northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regions.

The police also arrested over 200 suspects in May, according to the regional public security department on Sunday.

The groups were busted by police in south Xinjiang's Hotan, Kashgar and Aksu prefectures, where the majority of the population are Muslim Uygurs, the department revealed.

More than 200 explosive devices were also seized in the police raids.

Many of the suspects were in their 20s and 30s, who watched terror video and audio through the Internet and electric storages and learned how to make explosives.

According to Xinhua, they exchanged their experiences of making explosives and propagating Jihad through chatting tools, text messages and illegal preaching sites, according to the department.

Many of the terror suspects seized in recent years were instigated by those terror video and audio products to carry out terrorist activities, he said.

Xinjiang started a one-year campaign against terrorist violence on Friday. The campaign will last until June 2015 with Xinjiang as the major battleground.

The campaign will focus on terrorists and religious extremist groups, gun and explosive manufacturing dens and terrorist training camps.