In May, after a deadly attack on a market in Urumqi using explosives, authorities in Xinjiang declared a "people's war" on terrorism.The Intermediate People's Court of Urumqi ruled that Mr Tohti had "bewitched and coerced young ethnic students" into writing separatist tracts for Uighur Online, a website he founded in 2006, according to Xinhua, an official news service.
Authorities in China say they have held a suspect over Thursday's attack on a market in Urumqi in Xinjiang province in which 39 people died.
In March, a gruesome knife attack at a train station in the city of Kunming left 33 people dead, while in May, a bomb attack on a street market in Urumqi killed 43 others.
Beijing launched a "strike hard" campaign in the province just over a year ago after an attack on a train station in Urumqi as Chinese President Xi Jinping was visiting the city.
Violence has increased in recent months, with deadly attacks on civilians in Urumqi and the southern city of Kunming.
According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, the 22 May attack on an open-air market in Urumqi's predominantly Han-populated Shayibake district, which left 31 people dead and 94 injured, demonstrates that Uighur "terrorists are swollen with arrogance".
The latest crackdown followed an attack on 22 May in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, in which men drove off-road vehicles through a crowded market and threw explosives, killing 39 people.
"It was a very rare case," he said of last year's bomb attack in Urumqi.
But residents, many speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, painted a bleak picture of how relations between Uighurs and Han Chinese migrants had soured in the wake of the 2009 riots and the attack in Urumqi last year.
The latest attack comes on the heels of the spate of violence so far this year linked to Xinjiang and the Uighur, including the 1 March mass knife attack at Kunming train station and the 30 April knife and bomb attack at Urumqi's central train station.
