By KUNA,
Tokyo : Chinese police announced Tuesday the names of eight wanted terrorists of the Muslim separatist group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
They are accused of having “plotted, organized, and carried a series of terrorist activities in China to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games since 2007, ” state media said.
“The eight terrorists whose names were just released were deeply involved in terrorism. They led, planned, or organized criminal activities, as well as recruited or trained followers,” spokesman for the Public Security Ministry Wu Heping said at a news conference in Beijing, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Wu also called for global cooperation to ferret out whereabouts of the eight, saying that “the Chinese police welcome international collaboration in fighting against terrorism and hope to cooperate with other countries in sharing anti-terrorism intelligence, cutting off funding channels of terrorists and extraditing suspects.”
The ETIM, which wants to split the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang from the rest of China, is “one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations among East Turkistan terrorist forces,” Wu said.
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, where 8 million Uygur Muslims live, has been under Beijing’s control since 1949. The government said at least 33 people died in Xinjiang in a series of terrorist attacks in August, before and during the Beijing Games.