Approximately 100 Tibetan monks were arrested or turned themselves in yesterday after hundreds of protesters attacked a police station in northwest China, state media reported.
The protest appeared to be in retaliation for the disappearance of a Tibetan who escaped from police custody in Qinghai Province, Xinhua news agency reported.
The demonstration was the latest sign of Tibetan anger in a tense month of tightened Chinese security in the region because of a number of sensitive anniversaries.
Several hundred people — including about 100 monks from the La’gyab Monastery — attacked the police station in La’gyab, a township in the Tibetan prefecture of Golog, assaulting policemen and government staff on Saturday, Xinhua said.
The assault caused some slight injuries, Xinhua said, without elaborating.
A man who answered the phone at Qinghai’s public security department said he had not heard about the attack or the arrests.
Phone calls to other police departments and government offices in the area rang unanswered.
Six people were arrested for alleged involvement in the riot, while another 89 people surrendered to police. All but two were monks, Xinhua said. Police were searching for other monks who took part in the attack but fled, Xinhua cited a local official as saying.
Order has been restored in the township, it said.
The violence began after a man accused of supporting Tibetan independence escaped from police custody on Saturday and went missing, Xinhua said.
Xinhua cited authorities as saying the man fled the La’gyab police station after asking to go to the washroom, prompting a manhunt. It cited a witness as saying he was seen swimming in the Yellow River.
A former resident of the area who now lives in Dharmsala, India, said the protesters were angry because they believed the man, a 28-year-old monk named Tashi Sangpo, jumped in the river to commit suicide after fleeing.
“When Tashi was being interrogated by the officials, he asked their permission to go to the toilet. He then went out and jumped into the Yellow River,” the source said on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals against his family still living in China. “The dead body is yet to be found.”
The exile said 500 monks from the monastery protested outside the local administration office and the group swelled to about 2,000 as others from the village joined in.
He said Tashi Sangpo was being investigated by police because he unfurled a Tibetan flag on the roof of the monastery on March 10, the anniversary of the start of the 1959 abortive Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule, and distributed pamphlets on the street urging unified protest against Chinese rule.
It was difficult to independently verify the account as government departments could not be reached yesterday.
Dharmsala is the seat of the Dalai Lama’s self-proclaimed government-in-exile and the destination of many Tibetans who flee China.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS