(TibetanReview.net, Mar 20, 2009) — The paramilitary People’s Armed Police in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have claimed to have destroyed a case filled with explosives they found at the Lhasa railway station “one day in early spring” this year and broken up a group behind an attempted attack. However, Reuters Mar 18 cited a spokesman for the TAR government as having denied the report, which lacked specificity.
The report cited the People’s Armed Police News as saying Mar 18 that the paramilitary police came across an abandoned pink suitcase while patrolling Lhasa’s railway station. Finding it “packed with TNT explosives”, it was dismantled by using a robot and “the explosives were successfully destroyed in just 14 minutes, avoiding a bloody incident,” the report was quoted as saying.
The report did not specify the size of the explosive packed case or the date of the incident, which would be between February and March. Also, no further details were provided about the claimed break-up of a group linked to the case. The report was only stated to say, “The public security forces followed the clues and joined hands with the People’s Armed Police to strike down an illegal organization threatening Tibet’s security.”