Update | Beijing says Uygur militants behind suspected Tiananmen terrorist attack
Security chief says separatists behind Tiananmen Square incident that left five dead
The country's security chief has blamed a Uygur militant group for Monday's suspected terrorist attack in Tiananmen Square and called on the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) to help combat the threat.
Meng Jianzhu , head of the Communist Party's Central Politics and Law Commission and a member of the decision-making Politburo, said on the sidelines of an SCO meeting in Uzbekistan on Thursday that the fatal car crash was orchestrated by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
The small separatist group, which Beijing has long implicated in terrorist activities in Xinjiang , has been listed by the UN as an al-Qaeda associate and designated by the United States for anti-terrorism sanctions.
State television reported online last night that all eight suspects came from Hotan in Xinjiang and had "canvassed the site three times" before launching the attack, citing the police.
It said the suspects, comprising three families and an individual, decided to set up a "terrorist group" in September and arrived in Beijing on October 7, hiding in Xicheng district.
Five of them returned to Urumqi five days before the remaining three on Monday crashed a Mercedes SUV in front of the Tiananmen gate tower, the CCTV English News channel said on its official .
