China executes 13 people on charges related to terrorism

Thirteen people have been executed for terrorism-related offenses in three cities in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province, authorities announced Monday.

The convicts had been found guilty of crimes including homicide, arson, making explosives and organizing, leading and participating in a terrorist group, according to a report late Monday by the state-run New China News Agency.

Taken together with other recent disclosures about authorities’ efforts to crack down on violent unrest in the region, the details of seven cases in 2012 and 2013 add to an emerging portrait of a province more pockmarked by frequent violent attacks than authorities have previously acknowledged.

Three of the 13 were given the death penalty for their participation in a June 2013 attack in Lukqun Township that left two police officers and 22 civilians dead and another 23 people injured. In that case, which was publicized at the time, authorities said assailants attacked the police station, hotels and other facilities.

The other 10 people who were executed were said to be involved in cases that received much less attention in the media. In one instance, in June 2012, a child was killed and 17 other people were injured. In another case in May 2012, two people who resisted joining a terrorist group that was plotting the assassination of village officials were slain, the news agency report said.

The cases were spread across courts in three cities in Xinjiang: Aksu, Turpan and Hotan.

The news of the executions Monday came as authorities also announced that three people had been sentenced to death for their involvement with an October 2013 attack in Tiananmen Square. In that case, a jeep mowed down pedestrians, killing two people, before erupting in a fireball just outside the Forbidden City.

In the wake of a string of deadly terrorist attacks within Xinjiang and far outside the province, Chinese authorities have launched a highly visible anti-terrorist campaign nationwide. Police in numerous cities have been armed, tens of thousands of neighborhood watch type volunteers have been recruited to patrol in Beijing, and fatigued troops with automatic weapons have been posted around the capital in recent weeks. Rewards for tips on suspicious activities have been offered.