Tuesday 24 March 2015

China Executes 3 for Deadly Kunming Train Station Attack

China has executed three men for their alleged role in last year's deadly attack that killed 31 people at a train station in the southwest city of Kunming.

The men - identified as Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad - were put to death Tuesday, according to a statement by the Kunming Intermediate People's Court.

The three were convicted in September of homicide and leading a terrorist group, which authorities say carried out the March 2014 knife attack on the Kunming railway station.

Police shot and killed four of the five assailants. The other attacker, a pregnant woman, was captured alive and has been sentenced to life in prison.

It was one of the deadliest attacks yet blamed by China on separatists based in the far-western region of Xinjiang, which is home to the Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority group.

In recent years, hundreds have been killed in violent attacks, which have increasingly targeted civilians as well as government authorities. China has responded with a heavy-handed anti-terror crackdown that has resulted in dozens of executions and hundreds of arrests.

Many exiled Uighur activists say the violence is a reaction to China's repressive policies in Xinjiang, where Uighurs have lived for centuries but are gradually being replaced by the Han Chinese majority group. (VOA)

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