Police arrested a man suspected of planning to bomb a shopping mall in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei Province in early 2015, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

Ekber, the suspect, was among several people arrested who were trained overseas and entered China to engage in alleged terrorist attacks, the Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.

Media reports did not mention when and where Ekber and the others were arrested.

Xinhua quoted Ekber as saying that he was trained by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a UN-recognized terrorist group.

"I wanted to make money here [in Shijiazhuang], and I was looking for explosive materials and devices," said Ekber, wearing a yellow prison uniform in Xinyuan county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, CCTV reported on Friday.

Ekber met an ETIM member named Eli abroad in early 2013, who claimed to be extremely religious and often talked his determination to become a martyr and go to heaven.

Ekber once questioned becoming a martyr since he knew that if a Muslim kills himself he will go to hell, and that he watched jihad videos of suicide bombings and thought "that's suicide."

Eli reassured him that death for one's beliefs, for Jihad, was different from death by suicide, CCTV reported.

"Eli brainwashed them with extremist thoughts and jihad videos. When they wanted to conduct jihad, he told them how, gave them money, and introduced them to the ETIM," a policeman told Xinhua.

Eli was trained in Syria for three months, where he learned how to use guns and make explosives.

He was encouraged by Eli to carry out terrorist attacks in China, CCTV reported.

"I came back with the intention of carrying out bombings. I had planned to raise some money first," said Ekber.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the ETIM finds followers from China to seek training in the Middle East with the intent of returning to wage jihad, Reuters reported Thursday.

Wang Guoxiang, an associate professor at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the reason why terrorist groups choose to train their members overseas is the high risk and cost of training in China, where central and local governments are on high alert.

"Terrorists carry out their plans through pilgrimages, family and friends," added Wang.

A 25-year-old student at a medical school in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, was reportedly approached by religious extremists and invited to join Jihad in the name of imparting "religious knowledge," said Xinhua.

"Teenagers and university students are popular targets since they are at a rebellious stage in life, struggling for self identification and easier to be brainwashed," Wang told the Global Times.

Xinhua contributed to this story