Regional body to establish anti-terror unit

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization will set up a special unit to help combat terrorism, amid the increasing threat of terrorist activities facing China and Central Asia.

"Many terrorists who carried out deadly attacks in China watched or listened to video or audio files online with extremist ideological content, but such materials are produced or uploaded outside China," Zhang Xinfeng, director of the Eurasian grouping's regional anti-terrorist structure executive committee, said at its headquarters in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan. "The regional anti-terrorist structure decided to set up a special unit at the end of 2013 to deal with the new situation."

Zhang said the unit can provide assistance to China, especially to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which is at the frontline of the country's yearlong nationwide campaign on terrorism, to eliminate online sources of terrorist and extremist information.