BEIJING: A senior Chinese official called for stricter management of religious activities, state media said on Monday, following explosions in China’s western region of Xinjiang which authorities say were masterminded by a religious extremist.

Police shot dead six people and six more died when explosives they were carrying detonated in Xinhe county, according to weekend media reports. Blasts struck a beauty salon and a vegetable market.

Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the Communist Party’s seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, called for action to ensure that religious practice did not spill over into illegal acts.

His remarks, quoted by the official People’s Daily, made no direct reference to Xinjiang. But China has long objected to unauthorized activities associated with religious practice by Xinjiang’s large Muslim minority as well as other groups, like Buddhists in restive Tibet and various underground churches.

“Religious followers must expand consciousness of the state, the law and citizenship within religious circles so that the faithful naturally conduct religious activities within the bounds of law and policy,” he said.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted police in Xinjiang as saying a man identified as Ibrahim Qahar had organized a group of 17 people to produce the explosives at a rented house.

It said police had seized devices, but gave no details on their nature.