Story highlights China executes three men convicted of plotting a knife attack that killed 31

The train station attack shook the country and state media labeled it "China's 9/11"

(CNN) China has executed three men convicted of plotting a knife attack that killed 31 people at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming last year.

The Kunming City Intermediate People's Court said that Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad were put to death Tuesday.

It said they had committed intentional homicide, led a terrorist group and organized the mass knifing, which also wounded 141 people.

The names of those executed suggested they were Uyghur, a mainly Muslim ethnic group from Xinjiang, northwest China. Authorities had blamed terrorists from the region for the attack.

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