China Executes Eight Uighur Muslims For Terrorism

China executed eight people convicted of terrorism on Saturday, three of which it says were behind an attack last October in Tiananmen Square, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

All eight were members of China’s Uighur population, a mostly Muslim minority that lives primarily in the country’s northwest. The executions were approved by the Xinjiang supreme court there, but it was not immediately clear where, or when the executions were carried out

So far this year, nearly 300 have died in a string of bombings and stabbings that Chinese authorities attribute to Uighur separatists, according to the Los Angeles Times. The executed prisoners were also convicted of assassinating a politician, organizing terrorist groups, and making explosives.

Xinhua said that Yusup Ehmet, Huseyin Guxur and Yusup Wherniyas were executed Saturday for organizing an attack in Tiananmen Square on Oct. 28. The group drove a sport utility vehicle through a crowd of tourists in a failed attempt at a suicide bombing. The vehicle erupted in flames, killing three others inside after two in the crowd died from their injuries. 39 others were injured.