China says police broke up a “terrorist gang” and confiscated a large cache of explosives in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Uighur separatists have launched a campaign to split off from China. It’s the latest in the government’s widespread anti-terrorism crackdown that saw more than 200 arrests this month.

Police in Hotan arrested five gang members, destroyed two explosive-making sites and seized 1.8 tons of explosive raw materials, according to local news reports.  The suspects’ names are from the Uighur ethnic group.  Police say they watched and disseminated “violent terrorist and religious extremist videos”.

This comes after last week’s attack at an open-air market in the Xianjiang capital Urumqi that killed 31 people.  The terrorists plowed into the market from either side, tossing explosives from speeding SUVs and shooting at the mostly elderly people selling vegetables. 

Uighur Islamist separatists are also blamed for three other high profile attacks:  the bombing at Urumqi’s train station on 30 April, which killed three people;  the 1 March knife attack on the train station in southern Kunming, where the attackers hacked and slashed their way through a busy crowd, killing 29 people and injuring more than 100; and the attack outside Tiananmen Square on 28 October 2013 in which a truck ran over people in a crowd, killing five and injuring at least 40.