China arrests 19 terrorists for attack in Xinjiang

China today said it has arrested nineteen suspected terrorists in the restive Xijiang province in connection with last week's deadly attack that killed 21 people, including six militants.
Police said that by yesterday, they had nabbed all 19 suspects from the region's Kashgar Prefecture, the Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin and the regional capital of Urumqi.
Eleven suspected militants linked to the deadly attack have been arrested, officials said.
Eight suspected militants were captured earlier after the deadly attack in which 21 people, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The announcement came even as China today held memorial services for the police and civilian officials who were killed in the attack at Kashgar's Bachu County, some 1,200 km southwest of Urumqi.

State television for the first time showed footage of several houses destroyed in the attack.

According to the Xinjiang police, the terrorist group, headed by Qasim Muhammat, was founded in September 2012.
The group members regularly watched video clips advocating religious extremism and terrorism and attended illegal preaching ceremonies.
Since early December, 2012, they had always gathered at the house of Muhanmetemin Barat, a group member, to do physical training and to practise killing skills they had learned from the terrorist video clips, the police said.
In early March this year, the ring made explosive devices and remote controllers and later carried out five explosion testings.

They had planned to "do something big" in the densely populated public areas in Kashgar in the summer, the police said.
The group members were spotted making explosives on April 23 by local police and community workers, which led to the deadly clash.
Vice Minister of Public Security Meng Hongwei said today that police have tracked down a batch of homemade explosives, lethal weapons, and flags of "East Turkistan" terrorists after the April 23 clash.
East Turkistan Islamic Movement, (ETIM), which China says is linked to al-Qaeda is active in Xinjiang where the native Uygur Muslim who constitute the majority were restive over the increasing settlements of Han Chinese.