CHINESE COURT SENTENCES 8 TO DEATH FOR XINJIANG ATTACKS
Xinjiang, 15 Safar 1435/9 December 2014 (MINA) – A Chinese court handed death sentences to eight people Monday over their alleged involvement in two fatal attacks in northwestern Xinjiang province in which a Uighur Muslim separatist group is believed to have been involved.
State news agency Xinhua reported they were sentenced in connection with incidents that took place in April and May in the region’s capital Urumqi, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
It added that five others had received the same penalty but had been given a two-year reprieve, while four others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
In April, an Urumqi train station was rocked by an explosion that killed three people and injured 79 others.
The following month, at least 39 people were killed and 94 wounded when two off-road vehicles ploughed into a market, with the assailants then setting off explosives.
Xinhua reported that among those sentenced were the ringleader of the April blast, Ahmat Rixit, while Abliz Dawut and Nurahmat Ablipiz were sentenced to death for being behind the market attack.
It claimed that the three men had met with Ismail Yusup a member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement to listen to and watch audio and video clips about “terror” in preparation for the May attack.
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party was founded by members of the Turkic speaking ethnic Uighur majority in northwest China’s Xinjiang province, from where it is seeking an independent state which covers China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and other nearby regions.
It is considered a terrorist organization by China, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
The International Criminal Police Organization and Chinese police are now believed to be hunting for Yusup, who Xinhua said is now believed to be outside China.
A yearlong “anti-terrorism’’ campaign focusing on Xinjiang, home to the Uighur group was launched by China’s central government on May 23 and will be in effect until June 2015.
Uighur, a Turkic group which constitute around 45 percent of the population of Xinjiang, have accusing China of carrying out repressive policies that restrain their religious, commercial and cultural activities. (T/P002/P3)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
