Street patrols at maximum level to counter terrorism
Beijing police have started street patrols at the highest security level from Monday as part of a campaign to counter violence and terrorism.
The campaign, coded "peace action," will last until mid August.
Patrol officers, traffic officers, armed police and assistant police will be deployed to densely populated venues, subways and busy streets to enhance patrolling. Security guards and volunteers in communities are also included in the patrol team, according to an announcement on the official Weibo account of the Beijing police.
Addressing the complicated anti-terrorism situation, controls and supervision would be especially tightened on knives, express deliveries, secondhand markets, gas stations, and low-flying small aircraft.
The campaign is aimed at maintaining stability for the 2015 Beijing World Championships in Athletics that is scheduled to kick off in this August, and the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of victory in the anti-fascist war including a military parade in early September, an official from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau told the Beijing News.
"It also comes in the midst of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when the world is witnessing a high frequency of terror attacks," Wang Guoxiang, an associate professor at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
An armed man killed 38 people at a beach in a Tunisian resort on Friday, and 25 people were killed in a suicide bomb strike on a Muslim mosque in Kuwait on the same day. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the two attacks, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
"The Beijing police also attempted to avoid another July 5 Xinjiang riot that claimed over 180 lives in 2009, as terrorists tried to stir up troubles around each July 5 since 2009," Wang said.
Xinjiang authorities have busted 181 terror groups as of May after launching a sweeping anti-terrorism campaign in 2014, according to Xinhua.
The tightened patrols will serve as a psychological deterrent to terrorists, Wang said.
Beijing police started to deploy 150 armed patrol vehicles to the streets to tighten security after a bombing in a market in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, that killed 39 people in May 2014. Each vehicle was deployed with nine police officers and four assistant police. Police could reach the scene of incidents within three minutes after receiving reports, Xinhua said.
Meanwhile, the campaign will step up a crackdown on other social security problems, including gambling, prostitution, illegal hotels and illegal taxis. Police will also be dispatched to areas with poor social security to make arrests for illegal behavior.
