Beijing, Nov 11 (IANS): A court in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has convicted 22 people for conducting illegal religious activities.
The convicted, who received jail terms of between five and 16 years, were convicted on charges including of inciting ethnic hatred, disrupting social order and rape, Kashgar City People's Court said.
They included "underground imams", or unappointed heads of mosques, as well as imams who continued to hold services after being sacked, according to Xinhua.
Kashgar Mayor Enwaer Tursun said after the trial that Xinjiang had been plagued by religious extremism, which disrupted social order and fed the ideology of terrorism.