BEIJING
A Chinese court handed death sentences to eight people Monday over their alleged involvement in two fatal attacks in northwestern Xinjiang province last spring.
State news agency Xinhua reported they were sentenced in connection with attacks that took place in April and May in the region’s capital Urumqi.
In April, an Urumqi train station was rocked by a bomb explosion that killed three people and injured 79 others.
The following month, at least 31 people were killed and around 100 others wounded when two off-road vehicles ploughed into a market, with the assailants then setting off explosives.
A yearlong ‘’anti-terrorism’’ campaign -- focusing on Xinjiang, home to the Uighur Muslim ethnic group -- was launched by China’s central government on May 23 and will be in effect until June 2015.
Uighurs, a Turkic group which constitute around 45 percent of the population of Xinjiang, are accusing China of carrying out repressive policies that restrain their religious, commercial and cultural activities.
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