China's police have arrested a man who allegedly spread rumors that were later used by the World Uygur Congress (WUC) to trigger the Urumqi violence on July 5 which killed 197 people, police authorities said in a statement Wednesday.

Kurban Khayum, an intelligence agent of the WUC, was arrested for allegedly spreading rumors by exaggerating the death toll of a factory unrest involving Uygurs in Shaoguan city of the south China's Guangdong Province in late June, the statement said.

It did not make clear the exact date the 32-year-old man from Kuqa County in mid-west Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was arrested.

According to the statement, Kurban Khayum joined the WUC in early 2008.

In mid June this year, he was instructed by WUC secretary general Dolqun Isa, to "gather intelligence on separatist activities in China by Uygurs and people of other ethnic groups, ... in order to carry out activities to split China," according to the statement.

After a factory brawl took place between people of the Han?and?Uygur ethnic groups?on June 26 in Guangdong's Shaoguan city, Dolqun Isa instructed WUC's intelligence agents, including Kurban Khayum, to gather information on the unrest, which left two people dead and more than 100 injured.

But Kurban Khayum, who was then working as a chef at an Arabic restaurant in Guangzhou, provincial capital of Guangdong, did not go to Shaoguan, the statement said.

Instead, he made up a report and sent to the WUC saying "the factory brawl had caused the death of 17 to 18 people, including three females."

In an e-mail sent to an assistant of WUC leader Rebiya Kadeer, Kurban Khayum wrote, "a massive protest should be staged to let the world know about this bloody incident."

The official statement said Kurban Khayum had confessed that his inaccurate reports to the WUC were used to trick many people in Xinjiang and helped trigger the July 5 Urumqi violence.

China's police authorities have repeatedly accused the WUC of arousing antagonism and confrontation between the Uygurs and people of other ethnic groups by spreading fake videos and photographs.

On July 28, a netizen, who was believed to be a key WUC member, was blamed for spreading online a fake video about "a Uygur girl beaten to death", which was in fact a CNN footage shot in the Mosul city of Iraq on April 7, 2007.

In another case, a photograph produced by Rebiya Kadeer in an interview with Al Jazeera on July 7 to show how "peaceful Uygur protesters" were being cracked down by police during the July 5 Urumqi violence was later found to be cropped from a Chinese news Web site image on an unrelated June 26 protest in Shishou, Hubei Province.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2009)