Dozens of terrorists and accomplices given lengthy prison sentences

A court in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, on Monday sentenced 12 people to death for organizing terrorist attacks that killed 37 civilians in Shache county in July.

Those sentenced to death included Osman Ablet, Yuwup Ablet and Jume Qadir.

The Intermediate People's Court of Kashgar also sentenced 15 others to death with a two-year reprieve, according to official news portal ts.cn.

Nine people were jailed for life while another 20 defendants received four to 20 years behind bars. In addition, two defendants got probation.

A terror attack on July 28 in the Shache county of Kashgar left 37 civilians dead and 94 injured. A gang armed with knives and axes attacked a police station and government offices in Elixku township, and some moved on to Huangdi township, attacking civilians and smashing vehicles as they passed.

According to the court, Osman Ablet joined a terror group led by Nur Memet, who police shot dead during the attack, and slashed at passing drivers with a knife, killing three. Yuwup Ablet also joined the group and killed five people while Jume Qadir smashed cars and killed two.

Eli Tursun received life imprisonment, a relatively mild sentence for his offences, since he surrendered himself to the authorities after killing innocent residents.

Mehmet Tursun Emer was sentenced to three years in prison with a four-year reprieve, for harboring his young brother who participated in the attack, but confessed voluntarily after being arrested.

A total of 59 attackers were shot dead by police during the attack and 215 were arrested.

The Xinjiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China later penalized 17 officials, including county and town officials, a vice secretary-general of Kashgar's Islamic association and several police officers. These officials were deemed to have had some responsibility for the Shache attack as well as the murder of 74-year-old religious leader Jume Tahir by extremists in China's largest mosque, the Id Kah Mosque, in Kashgar, on July 30.

Separately, a policewoman in Pishan county, Hotan in southern Xinjiang was brutally attacked and murdered on Friday by two motorcycle-mounted assailants with sharp weapons at a local market near the county public security bureau, said the local authorities.

The officer was two months pregnant, the authorities added, citing a colleague of the deceased.

The statement did not specify the ethnicity of the policewoman, but revealed her name and photo, both of which indicate her ethnicity was likely Uyghur.

It is unclear whether the two attackers were arrested.