2 militants killed in China as 3 get death for Beijing attack

Three people were sentenced to death and five others were jailed today for last year's brazen suicide attack at the iconic Tiananmen Square here even as two suspected Islamist militants were killed while attempting to carry out knife attacks in China's troubled Xinjiang province.
Three knife-wielding men rushed into a chess and card room in Hetian Prefecture of Xinjiang and attempted to attack people inside last evening, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.
The civilians fought back as armed patrol forces arrived at the scene quickly and subdued the attackers.
Two attackers were killed and another injured person was arrested. Four civilians were injured in fighting with the attackers, it said.

Meanwhile, a court in Xinjiang sentenced three militants to death for the terrorist attack at the Forbidden City near Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October 2013.
Five people including an Uyghur man, his wife and mother were killed in the suicide attack and several others injured.

Eight others regarded as associates of the suicide attackers were arrested.
The Urumqi Intermediate People's Court sentenced Husanjan Wuxur, Yusup Umarniyaz and Yusup Ahmat to death after convicting them of organising and leading a terrorist group and endangering public security.
Gulnar Tuhtiniyaz and Bujanat Abdukadir were sentenced to life in jail and 20 years in prison respectively for taking part in a terrorist group and endangering public security.

Three others, Tohti Mehmat, Tursunjan Abliz and Abla Niyaz, were given jail terms of ten to five years for participating in the attack, said the court, Xinhua reported.
According to the defendants Wuxur, Umarniyaz, Ahmat and Usmen Hasan recruited members in 2011 to carry out terrorist activities and formed a terrorist group.