China has arrested nine Tibetan Buddhist monks accused of involvement in a bomb attack on a government building in Tibet, an official said yesterday.
The monks from the Tongxia monastery in eastern Tibet fled after the homemade bomb exploded at the building in Gyanbe Township on March 23, and they later confessed to planting the explosive, Xinhua news agency said late on Saturday.
A local official confirmed the monks had been detained.
“Cewang Yexe, one of the suspects, brought a homemade bomb to the site on a motorcycle and moved it into the office building with the help of others. They detonated the bomb and ran away,” the late on Saturday report said.
Xinhua named Rinqen Jamcan, 27, a “ranking monk” at the monastery, as ringleader. All the suspects have confessed, it said.
Xinhua did not explain why the alleged incident was not reported earlier, nor did it mention any casualties or damage in the blast.
The bombing report builds on Beijing’s claims that the recent Tibetan protests were part of a violent campaign by the Dalai Lama and his supporters to throw off Chinese rule in Tibet and sabotage the Beijing Olympics in August.
The bombing is the first to be reported in Tibet since the anti-China protests began March 10 in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, turning violent four days later.
Coming nearly two weeks after the initial protests, the bombing is the first report of violence within Tibet after China imposed a security clampdown in the region and claimed life had returned to normal.
The Dalai Lama has denied involvement in violent acts and says he only wants greater autonomy for the remote mountain region. He has expressed opposition to a boycott of the Olympic Games.
An official with the local county Public Security Bureau at Gongjue, near the border with Sichuan Province, confirmed that six monks had been detained for allegedly planting the bomb and three for shielding the suspects and covering up their crimes.
The official refused to give his name because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
A woman at the Tibetan Regional Public Security Department said she was not sure about the case because it was still under investigation. She also declined to be named.
China says 22 people were killed in the Tibetan riots that began March 14, four days after protests began, with hundreds of shops torched and Chinese civilians attacked.
The Dalai Lama’s India-based government-in-exile has claimed at least 140 people died. More than 1,000 protesters were detained.
Beijing has accused Tibetan independence forces of organizing suicide squads for launching violent attacks against China.
Wu Heping (吳和平), a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Public Security, also claimed that searches of monasteries in Lhasa had uncovered a large cache of weapons.
On Friday, China labeled a group linked to the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile a “terrorist organization.”
Separately, Xinhua said Saturday a Tibetan seized in a Lhasa monastery had confessed to slashing a passer-by three times with a 30cm-long knife during the March 14 riot.
The man was listed as No. 2 in a most-wanted list by police, Xinhua said. Police have 93 suspects on their most-wanted list and have arrested 13 of them, an official said. .
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