China detains 2 men for spreading terrorist rumor

Two men are detained for spreading a rumor that hundreds of terrorists have arrived in a southern Chinese city, police say, just days before a new ban on falsifying terror information takes effect.

Police in the Shenzhen city district of Guangming say Monday that two executives of an unspecified local company were detained after they posted the rumor-containing notice at their firm.

A photo posted by the police shows the notice warning company employees that 300 people from the far northwestern region of Xinjiang who were trained by the Islamic State group had arrived in Guangming.

Xinjiang is home to members of the Muslim minority Uighur community. Uighurs (pronounced (WEE-gurs) have been involved in several violent attacks denounced as part of global terrorism by Chinese authorities, although critics say it is more likely to be homegrown under Beijing’s repressive ethnic and religious policies and practices in Xinjiang.

The violence, which has left hundreds of people dead in and outside Xinjiang in recent years, has prompted China’s government to launch an anti-terror campaign in Xinjiang and, most recently, to approve the country’s first anti-terrorism law.

The law, which takes effect Friday, bans fabrication of terror information. The law says that in times of possible terror attacks, only China’s anti-terrorism leadership agencies can release information on how the attacks occurred, developed and are dealt with.

— AP