BEIJING — China’s domestic security chief said a terrorist organisation was behind this week’s attack at Beijing’s Tiananmen Gate that left five people dead and 40 injured.

Speaking at a meeting in Uzbekistan, Mr Meng Jianzhu said the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) was a “behind-the-scenes instigator” of the assault on Monday.

Mr Meng, who was participating in a meeting of the anti-terrorism body of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a grouping of China, Russia and four central Asian states, offered no further details on how investigators made that link. This is the first time Beijing has accused the group of carrying out the attack.

The police said they found a banner printed with “religious extremist messages” on the vehicle that crashed into a stone bridge and was ignited by the three occupants who died in the fire. Those in the vehicle were believed to be ethnic Uighurs, as were five suspects who were arrested after the incident.

Uighurs are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, and some have resisted China’s authority over the Xinjiang region they call home.

ETIM, which seeks an independent Uighur state, was labelled a terrorist group by the United States in 2002. That move was criticised by some scholars who said there was little evidence the group existed and suggested the move was intended to ease Chinese opposition to US plans to invade Iraq.

Chinese officials have linked ETIM to a 2008 attack on border police in the Xinjiang city of Kashgar. The group claimed responsibility for a series of 2011 attacks in Xinjiang. Last year, China named six suspected members, and said they were operating in Asia.

A CIA drone strike last year in Pakistan killed Emeti Yakuf, who had been identified as senior leader of the group.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was facing a clear danger from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which she added also operated outside of the country.

“Members of the organisation have for a long time engaged in terrorist acts in South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia and other regions. It has links to many international extremist terrorist groups,” she told a daily news briefing. “It is China’s most direct and realistic security threat.”

Some experts have expressed scepticism about China’s characterisation of the Tiananmen Square incident as a premeditated and coordinated attack.

“If it’s a deliberate act, it’s unsophisticated,” said Ms Joanne Smith Finley, a lecturer in Chinese studies at Newcastle University. “It doesn’t carry any of the hallmarks that we would expect to see if it was something that was plotted and carefully deliberated with overseas extremists.” Agencies