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March 25
Reuters)

BEIJING, March 25 (Reuters) - Chinese police in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang have dismissed speculation there had been bus explosions in the regional capital Urumqi and detained those spreading the rumour, state media said on Tuesday.

The rumour that blasts hit two buses in Urumqi had been spreading in the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang and even across China from Monday, according to a report on the regional government's official news portal (www.tianshannet.com).

It's "sheer nonsense" and "business as usual in Xinjiang", Xinhua news agency quoted Liu Yaohua, head of the region's Public Security Bureau, as saying.
Police have detained individuals suspected of spreading Urumqi bus blast rumours, Xinhua said without elaborating.

"Subversive leaflets" intended to "fabricate rumours and sabotage social stability" had appeared in Urumqi, it quoted Liu as saying.

A senior Chinese official said recently that extremist Uighurs -- a Turkic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with central Asia -- were plotting attacks on the Beijing Olympics in August.

The rumour came less than 20 days after a failed attack on a passenger flight from Urumqi to Beijing by separatists seeking an independent Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is home to 8 million Muslim Uighurs, many of whom resent the growing presence and economic and political grip of Han Chinese.

China has accused Uighur militants of staging a series of attacks, including several bus explosions, and murdering Chinese civilians since the 1990s and has hinted at their links with al Qaeda.

China wants to look its best and show off its rising global status by presenting an impeccable Games to the world, but the Tibet unrest and the foiled Xinjiang plane attack, among other things, have shadowed its preparations. (Reporting by Guo Shipeng and Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by David Fogarty)