Terrorism is seeking to strike at the very heart of the nation.

The jeep that crashed through pedestrians by the rostrum at Tian'anmen Square was set on fire by the occupants of the vehicle, and a police investigation has confirmed that it was a carefully planned terrorist attack.

Police discovered gasoline, knives, steel sticks and other equipment as well as a flag with extremist religious content in the vehicle, and they have confirmed that religious extremists from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region were the perpetrators of the attack that killed two tourists, as well as the three terrorists in the vehicle, and left 40 injured; 12 of whom are still in intensive care.

Five people detained by the police during their investigation have confessed to being involved in the attack.

We express our deepest condolences to those who were killed and injured, and we strongly condemn the extremists who have planned and committed this terror assault.

A few religious extremists harbor the ill intention of separating the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from its motherland. They have already organized a number of terrorist attacks in the northwestern autonomous region, which have resulted in the loss of more than 200 lives over the years.

They have been seeking the establishment of the so-called Eastern Turkistan at the expense of the stability of the autonomous region and the prosperity of people of all ethnicities there.

Now they have launched an attack in the national capital in their attempt to undermine the country's stability.

One of the terrorists who was caught confessed that they had never expected that police would catch them so quickly - a little more than 10 hours after the attack. What they should have expected is they will go down in history as murderers not heroes.

What they have done is against the interests and will of the majority of Uygurs, who have benefited from the unity of the country, from the reform and opening-up, and from the country's preferential policies for non-Han ethnic groups.

What they have done is against the common interests of all the various ethnicities in this country.

Their way of asserting their will by resorting to terrorism will only make them the enemy of all Chinese people.

(China Daily 10/31/2013 page8)