Dharamsala, March 28: Over a hundred monks have been arrested from the Ngaba Kirti Monastery in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Sichuan Province following a raid by Chinese People’s Armed Police (PA) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) this afternoon, according to Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
TCHRD said it received confirmed information of a raid conducted by Chinese police and security bureau in the monastery leading to arrest of some 100 monks.
Unrest in Ngaba County since 15 March, were some of the most dramatic protests by Tibetans, mainly led monks from the Kirti monastery, outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).
At least 23 Tibetans have been reportedly killed and hundreds were critically injured and many more were arrested as Chinese authorities resorted to violent crackdown to quell the peaceful Tibetan demonstrators demanding independence for Tibet.
16-year-old schoolgirl Lhundup Tso was among the Tibetan protesters killed in Ngaba County when Chinese police opened fire on March 16, 2008. She was reportedly shot in the back of the head.
According to TCHRD, hundreds of PAP and PSB came to Ngaba Kirti Monastery earlier this morning and dispersed people, mostly devotees and visitors gathered around the monastery compound, and ordered surrounding shops to be shut down.
Police later carried out sudden and through raid in each and every monk’s room; looking out for any incriminating documents and ransacking any portrait of the exiled Tibetan Leader, the Dalai Lama, before arresting several monks from the monastery, TCHRD’s report said.
Following is an extract from TCHRD’s report of today’s incident in Tibet:
At around 12 noon (Beijing Standard time), PAP and PSB forces stormed into Ngaba Kirti Monastery, in Ngaba County (Ch: Aba Xian), Ngaba “TAP” Sichuan Province. At first the PAP and PSB forces barred the monks of Ngaba Kirti Monastery from venturing out of their rooms, followed by a sudden raid carried out in each and every monk’s room, ransacking any portraits of the Dalai Lama and looking for any incriminating documents. At around 5:00 PM (Beijing Standard Time) at least a hundred monks were known to have been forcibly taken away by the armed forces to Ngaba County PSB Detention Centre after the raid. The current atmosphere inside the Kirti Monastery is known to be very tense and volatile.
According to the latest information from Tibet, sandbag barricades were erected by People’s Armed Police (PAP) around the Kirti Monastery and surroundings area to curb the fresh outbreak of protest by the local residents of Ngaba County.
TCHRD condemns in strongest terms the Chinese security forces’ highhandedness in dealing with monks by arbitrarily arresting monks without formal charges and ransacking the monastic institution.
