Beijing has launched an anti-terror drive centered on China's northwest province of Xinjiang to curb any further escalation of violence in the area.

The anti-terror drive aims to tighten control  on religious activist groups, terrorist training facilities and illegal weapons manufacturing bases.

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Local authorities also said they are gathering all their policemen to increase security vigilance in public places such as in hospitals, markets, schools and train stations.

Three more train stations will be subjected to new security guidelines, including requiring all passengers coming in and out of the stations to have their handbags and other belongings submitted for inspection and X-ray scanning.

Meanwhile, authorities have identified five suspects in Thursday's Urumqi market bombing that left at least 43 people dead.  The names of the suspects seemed to indicate that they were members of Xinjiang's Uighur Muslim community, authorities said.

The government believes that these terror attacks are being funded from outside the country. However, members of the Uighur community say the attacks may be fueled partly by the increasing number of ethnic Han Chinese  in the region. They also point out that China's policies prejudiced toward the Uighur may also be a contributing factor.

Xinjiang historian David Brophy says the terrorists might have felt cornered and turned to violence in a last ditch effort to make their voices heard.

Terrorist expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technical University, Ahmed A.S. Hashim, said Beijing's anti-terrorist initiatives may arouse sympathy in favor of the region's Muslim community.

"In fact, groups like Al-Qaeda and others are now beginning to think that China could be a new oppressor of the Muslim world," he said.

The recent wave of attacks has grown bolder as public and commercial establishments are being targeted. However, Brophy notes that these acts don't seem like foreign-funded terrorist acts. He added that there doesn't seem to be any evidence pointing to a link to any kind of terrorist network.

TagsXinjiang, Urumqi, Terrorist, Security, Terrorist group, war on terror, religious extremists, illegal guns, bombing, china bombing, China terrorist, han ethnicity, chinese han, han group