Beijing - China has executed two Uighurs and sentenced 15 others to prison in its Central Asian region of Xinjiang after a court convicted them of terrorism, US-based Radio Free Asia reported on Saturday. 

Mukhtar Setiwaldi and Abduweli Imin were executed on Wednesday shortly after a public sentencing rally organized by the Intermediate People's Court in the far western city of Kashgar, the broadcaster quoted local sources as saying. 

Three other Uighurs were given death sentences suspended for two years and the remaining 12 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life, it said. 

All 17 Uighurs were charged with belonging to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which the United States and China list as an international terrorist group. 

East Turkestan is the name still given to Xinjiang by Uighurs seeking an independent state there. 

The 17 Uighurs were arrested in a raid on a suspected terrorist camp in the Pamir Mountains in Xinjiang's Aktu county in January 2007, when the government said its forces shot dead 18 others. 

The Uighur American Association on Saturday said the sentencing in Kashgar showed that China was "ratcheting up already intense terror claims to crack down on Uighurs on an unprecedented scale." 

China's ruling Communist Party had chosen to "exploit the 'war on terror' and Uighurs' Muslim faith to suppress peaceful Uighur dissent while gaining international sympathy for their cause," the group said in a statement. 

"In light of the PRC's (People's Republic of China) documented pattern of the persecution of the Uighur people in the name of terrorism, extremism and separatism, its recent terror allegations and alleged terror raids warrant the intense scrutiny of the international community," said Rebiya Kadeer, the group's president. 

Police in Xinjiang on Thursday said they had arrested 82 suspected terrorists in five groups this year after they "allegedly plotted sabotage against the Beijing Olympics." 

The official Xinhua news agency said the new figure was announced by Chen Zhuangwei, the police chief in the regional capital of Urumqi, at a conference on Olympic security in the city on Wednesday. 

The agency said police in Xinjiang shot dead five "holy warriors" who were allegedly resisting arrest on Tuesday. 

The government said in April that it had foiled plots by two terrorist groups led by Uighurs in Xinjiang, including a plan to kidnap foreigners and carry out suicide bombings during the Olympics. 

Uighur exile groups have accused China of using terrorism claims as an excuse for a broad crackdown on dissent in Xinjiang in the run-up to the Olympics. 

Rights group Amnesty International has previously accused China of using the fight against global terrorism to justify its "long-standing repression" of the rights of Uighurs. (dpa)