BEIJING, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Police in northwest China's Xinjiang-Uighur region, home to Muslim Uighurs, thwarted attempts to sabotage public safety, a local Communist Party official said.
The report by China's official Xinhua news agency comes as Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was visiting Urumqi, capital of the violence-hit region, where the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs resent being ruled by Han Chinese.
Speaking on the reported sabotage attempts, Zhu Hailun, party chief of Urumqi, told reporters Wednesday separatists, religious extremists and terrorists have been plotting to sabotage the China-Eurasia Expo trade fair opening Thursday, Xinhua said.
Zhu said Urumqi airport security staff had recently arrested a man who attempted to take a knife on board a plane.
"There have been many similar cases of attacks being blocked by police," Zhu said. "Hopefully we have intervened in time to nip the violence in the bud."
Xinhua said authorities have tightened security in Urumqi and at airports including in Beijing and Shanghai to screen flights bound for Urumqi.
Xinjiang was rocked by violence in August that left at least 40 people dead in the cities of Kashgar and Hotan, the report said. The Kashgar violence was blamed on Islamic extremists trained in Pakistan, which is a close ally of China.
Official Chinese media have reported suspects captured after the attacks had said their group's leaders learned how to make explosives and firearms in camps run by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a terrorist group in Pakistan.
Xinjiang-Uighur is close to Pakistan and several central and west Asian countries. China describes Pakistan as its "all-weather friend."
Zardari, accompanied by several of his top officials, described China as Pakistan's closest friend and a strategic partner, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
Zardari "expressed his confidence that the government and the patriotic people of China would succeed in frustrating designs of the evil forces of terrorism, extremism and any attempt to undermine territorial integrity" and said Pakistan is "committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."
