Islamic separatists in western China are executing a carefully laid plan to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and make 2008 a “year of mourning”, a senior Chinese official claimed today — a day after a devastating attack that killed 16 policemen in the desert city of Kashgar.

In the first official response to the attacks, Shi Dagang, a senior Communist Party official in Kashgar, said that China faced a long struggle against terrorism perpetrated by local and foreign separatists seeking to establish an independent state of East Turkestan in the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang province.

“Since last year, East Turkestan forces have tried to launch sabotage and violence against the Beijing Games,” Mr Shi said. “They are trying to turn 2008 into a year of mourning for China.

“I admit that we face a severe campaign because I know that these people will not lose their momentum, but we are confident that we can control the broader environment.”

Extra police were visible at tourist sites in the city and, according to Chinese state media, cars coming into the city were being searched after yesterday's grenade attack.

Describing it as a “well planned attack”, Mr Shi said that a stolen lorry was driven from behind into a group of border patrolmen out on their morning jog. One of the two attackers had lost an arm as he set off a homemade bomb, but his companion threw more bombs, and set about the injured survivors with knives.

The two men were overcome and arrested. In their lorry, they were found to be carrying nine bombs, two long knives, two daggers and a gun.

They had allegedly also written wills in which they were quoted as saying: “Faith is more important than life, more important than the prosperity of family, more important than a mother's love. Therefore, we will pursue jihad with all our might.”

Mr Shi named two groups that he said were targeting the Olympics: the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (Etim) and the East Turkestan Liberation Organisation. “At the beginning of this year, Etim dispatched orders that from April and May, they will launch major incidents until the Beijing Games . . . this is the reality that we have to face, a combination of internal and external forces, jointly co-ordinating a series of attacks.”

The Chinese authorities have reported several incidents this year which they have attributed to East Turkestan terrorists, including the attempted bombing of a domestic passenger plane and bus bombs in the southwest city of Kunming. Responsibility for the latter was claimed on the internet in the name of Etim, but Chinese officials and foreign analysts have expressed doubts about the claims.

The attack, the biggest of its kind in ten years, caused alarm but little surprise in Kashgar, an oasis town on the ancient Silk Route, where Chinese immigrants are greatly outnumbered by Uighur locals. Most people refused to discuss the incident, for fear of getting into trouble with the security forces, but the few who were prepared to speak anonymously expressed mixed feeling about the effect of the attack.

Were these rather vague reports serious terrorist threats or an effort by the Chinese authorities to justify the intense security measures imposed on the country during the Olympics? Monday's attack proves that, however much the Chinese security forces may manipulate information, they also face a real threat.

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