Xinjiang-bound "bomb threat" plane lands in Afghanistan (Roundup)

Aug 9, 2009, 18:32 GMT

Beijing - A Kam Airlines flight bound for the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in China's west, which had received a bomb threat on Sunday, landed in Afghanistan early Monday morning, Chinese state media said.

Citing unnamed diplomatic sources, the official Xinhua news agency said the plane had landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Earlier, the news agency cited armed police sources in Xinjiang as saying an 'Afghanistan plane scheduled to Urumqi of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was bomb-threatened'.

The plane was a Kam Airlines flight from Kabul to Urumqi, Xinhua said, referencing an unnamed official at Kabul airport.

Aviation authorities in Urumqi had been ordered to prevent the plane landing in the city, the report said.

Riots broke out in Xinjiang last month between the region's ethnic Uighurs - one of China's Muslim minority groups, and Han Chinese residents. According to official figures, more than 197 people were killed and over 1,000 injured.

However, exile Uighur groups have said the real death toll could be up to 800, many of them Uighurs shot or beaten to death by police.

The government has blamed outside separatist forces for the unrest.

An al-Qaeda affiliate group in North Africa threatened to enact revenge on Han Chinese after the violence.