DHAKA: A Chinese court on Monday condemned 12 people to death and gave another 15 suspended death sentences in connection with a July attack in violence-racked Xinjiang.

The regional government’s Tianshan portal said, reports The Straits Times.

Thirty-seven civilians and 59 ‘terrorists’ were killed and another 13 civilians wounded in the July 28 attack on a police station and government offices in Shache county, also known as Yarkand, according to state media.

The incident was the bloodiest in Xinjiang since rioting involving members of China’s Han majority and the country’s mostly Muslim Uighur minority, the largest group in the region, left around 200 people dead in the capital Urumqi in 2009.

‘In adjudicating the case, the court fully implemented the criminal policy of combining justice with mercy,’ Tianshan said.

BDST: 1851 HRS, OCT 13, 2014