Beijing: China has announced the arrest of more than 200 terrorism suspects in the launch of a year-long nationwide anti-terrorism blitz, as it grapples with a deadly wave of violence stemming from its troubled far-western Xinjiang region.

Launching what it described as a “zero-hour” operation in the early hours of Sunday, the Ministry of Public Security said it apprehended an unspecified number suspects in Hotan, Kashgar and Aksu in southern Xinjiang, considered the heart of Islam in the region.

Armed presence: paramilitary policemen patrol near the People's Square in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Credit:AP

It said the suspects, mainly born in the 1980s and 1990s, were involved in spreading religious extremism through the internet, social media and memory cards containing videos which taught people how to make explosives and undergo physical training in preparation for “holy war”. It comes on top of more than 200 arrests authorities say they have made so far this month.

In a show of force after bombings at a morning market in Urumqi on Thursday claimed 43 lives and injured dozens more, thousands of military and public security personnel assembled outside the Xinjiang capital’s government offices and patrolled through the city streets in large convoys.