(TibetanReview.net, Mar22, 2017) – Chinese police in Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) County of Sichuan Province have on Mar 18 taken into custody nearly 200 Tibetans from the site where a 24-year-old Tibetan farmer had carried out a self-immolation protest against the Chinese rule in his homeland. The Chinese were reported to have suspected them of having raised slogans in solidarity with the self-immolator Pema Gyaltsen at the scene of the incident.
“Nearly 200 Tibetans who attempted to support Gyaltsen in his protest by raising cries in solidarity were taken away,” the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia (Washington) Mar 20 quoted a local Tibetan source as saying. “Police also confiscated the mobile phones of many of those who were detained.”
Many other Tibetans who witnessed the young farmer’s fiery protest were reported to have been dispersed by the Chinese police in the same incident.
Meanwhile, there is still no clarity on the question whether the self-immolator survived his fiery protest and if so what condition he was in.
The report cited one source as saying the youth set himself on fire at a crossroads in Karze town and was taken away by police, and another one as adding it took place near the town’s bus station. Other report had said the site was near the local Tsokha Monastery.