Exiled Uyghur groups offered conflicting accounts of the clash, which they claim was precipitated by increased ethnic and religious restrictions and widespread arbitrary arrests by authorities.
[4] Mamuti was convicted of terrorism and homicide-related crimes on March 26, in a trial that Uyghur groups overseas claimed without evidence did not comply with international legal standards.
[5] In 1998, Yecheng saw the U.S.-designated terrorist East Turkestan Islamic Movement blow up a natural gas pipeline and injure three people, as well as several explosions, according to authorities.
[8] Generally, Chinese authorities trace these attacks to Muslim hardliners who want independence from China, trained indigenously or in Pakistan.
[10] According to subsequent trial documents, on the morning of February 28, a Uyghur man named Abudukeremu Mamuti gathered eight followers in his house, who he had been grooming by preaching Islamic fundamentalism to them.
[11] At 6:00 p.m that evening, the group of nine started stabbing people in a crowd on Happiness Road (Chinese: 幸福路; pinyin: Xìngfú Lù) in Yecheng.
[1] Hong Lei (洪磊), spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said that the assailants deliberately targeted civilians and called them terrorists.