Four arrested in China for plotting terror attack

BEIJING: Four persons have been arrested in China for allegedly plotting terror attack in Shanxi province and inciting Muslims to travel to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State terror group.

The "suspects" were arrested recently for plotting terrorist attacks in the province, while advocating "hijrat" which originally means migration in Islam but being used by extremists to incite terror attacks, state-run Global Times reported.

According to reports, a number of Uyghur Muslims from the volatile Xinjiang province have migrated to Syria to take part in the Jihad along with Islamic State militants.

Xinjiang is home to the mostly Muslim Uyghurs who complain of heavy-handed rule and ethnic discrimination under Chinese rule.

China has over 21 million Muslims of which half are Uyghurs.

China alleges that separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an Al-Qaeda affiliated outfit has become active in the province bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Afghanistan and carrying out violent attacks in Xinjiang and other parts of the country in which scores killed and injured.

China alleges that ETIM fighters from Xinjiang have also joined the Islamic State in Syria which recently executed a Chinese national Fan Jinghui along the Norwegian national.