(TibetanReview.net, Mar26, 2015) – China is reported to have detained and disappeared on Feb 24 a Tibetan man whom it had previously removed from a monastery in Sog (Chinese: Suo) County of Nagchu (Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region for having challenged its patriotic education work team members there, reported Radio Free Asia (Washington) Mar 24. Ngawang Gyaltsen, 41, was taken from his home in Nagchu county’s Tarchen Village, Gongsum Township, in the middle of the night, suggesting that the reason was political.
The former monk of Nagchu’s Shak Rongpo Monastery was later traced by friends in a police detention centre in neighbouring Nagchu County, although his current whereabouts remain unknown.
While at the monastery, Ngawang Gyaltsen had confronted Chinese cadres who had been sent there to give patriotic education to the monks. As a result he was not only expelled from his monastery but also placed under severe restrictions at his village where he was made to return. The authorities placed restrictions on his movements and on the people allowed to meet him. He needed permissions to travel and the police monitored all his activities.