China Executes Eight, Including Tiananmen Attackers

China has executed eight people in the north-western region of
Xinjiang, for what it calls "terrorist" attacks, reports the state
news agency Xinhua.

Three of those executed had been convicted of an attack in Tiananmen
Square in Beijing last October, in which five people died, Xinhua
said.

The others were found guilty of crimes including bomb-making and arson.

The government has accused separatist militants based in Xinjiang of
carrying out a string of recent attacks.

Xinjiang is the traditional home of Muslim Uighurs, who speak a
distinct language and have different customs to the majority Han
population elsewhere in China.

Huseyin Guxur, Yusup Wherniyas and Yusup Ehmet were "deprived of
political rights for life" because of their role in the deadly car
crash on Tiananmen Square in October 2013, Xinhua said.

"They masterminded the terrorist attack," the news agency added.

In the incident, a car rammed into bystanders on the politically
important Beijing square before bursting into flames.

Two tourists died, along with three of the attackers.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress exile group,
called the executions "a typical case of the law serving political
ends".

Chinese officials often attribute attacks in Xinjiang to Uighur
separatists, accusing them of seeking to establish an independent
state called East Turkestan.

Beijing has recently blamed them for an attack in May at a market in
Urumqi, that left at least 31 people dead.

It also accused them of being behind a mass knife attack in the
southern province of Yunnan in March, in which 29 were killed and more
than 130 injured.

Uighur leaders deny they are co-ordinating a terrorist campaign.

They say the government's repressive policies in Xinjiang have
provoked the unrest.