Airplane forced to turn back by bomb scare

A plane that was headed for the province of Xinjiang in China was forced to return to its departure point Sunday night after there were reports of a bomb on board.

A Chinese news agency originally issued a newsflash saying that the aircraft had been hijacked, but that statement was quickly withdrawn. Both reports sauces were said to have come from the Xinjiang police. The last report was that the plane had landed back in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The airport at Urumqi was ordered by authorities to refuse permission for the plane to land, even though emergency vehicles and armed police officers had raced to the scene.

Only last week officials in China said that they have so far stopped five attacks by terrorist groups on innocent members of the public in Xinjiang, but have been sketchy on the number of arrests that were made or further details on what the attackers were planning on doing.

“The slow release of information about this incident and the fact that it was labeled a militant plot well after the fact suggest that the plot was genuine. It seems the Chinese themselves are only slowly coming to understand the implications of the incident and the details of what occurred seem to be supported by accounts that have appeared on various blogs from people who were onboard the plane,” said a report from an intelligence firm, Stratfor.