China says separatists threatened Afghan flight

BEIJING — China refused an Afghan airliner permission to land after intelligence indicated a possible threat from separatists seeking independence for the restive western region of Xinjiang, an official Communist Party newspaper said Tuesday.

The Global Times said authorities in Xinjiang received a report Sunday that a Kam Air flight that evening to Urumqi, the regional capital, could “possibly be threatened” by a group or groups seeking independence for the region, known as East Turkestan by the separatists.

Following takeoff, separate officials in Urumqi received further information claiming a bomb was on board, prompting them to refuse permission for it to land, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified regional official.

The flight — the private airline’s first on its new route from Kabul to Urumqi — was diverted to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s counterterrorism chief, Abdul Manan Farahi, said there was no bomb on the plane.

Chinese authorities have provided no further details about the nature of the alleged threat, and civil and police authorities refused to comment on the incident.

Officials and state media routinely level accusations against purported separatists while offering little or no evidence to back them up.

The incident reflects Beijing’s continued concerns about security in Xinjiang. Unrest in Urumqi in July left 197 dead and more than 1,700 injured — China’s worst ethnic violence in decades. Attacks on Han Chinese by members of Xinjiang’s native Uighur ethnic group sparked reprisal attacks by Chinese. Officials insist calm has since been restored.

Xinjiang’s 8 million Uighurs are a Muslim Central Asian people whose language, culture and religion are distinct from the Han. Many Uighurs complain of a colonial-style Chinese presence in their territory that imposes onerous restrictions on their religious and cultural life while marginalizing them economically.

Human rights groups say China exaggerates the terrorist threat in the region in order to increase its control over the Uighur population.

Threats to civil aviation in China are believed to be rare, although the government reported that in March 2008, a woman confessed to attempting to hijack and crash a Chinese passenger plane from Xinjiang. Officials said that was part of a terror campaign by a militant independence group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The reports said the woman was a Uighur.