Taken into custody in Sunday’s raid in Dza Wonpo township in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture were 19 monks from a local monastery and 40 laypeople whose homes were thoroughly searched by police, a Tibetan living in India told RFA. “Those who were arrested are currently being held at the Sershul [Shiqu] county police station,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity and citing contacts in the region.
Chinese police then called a meeting on Wednesday, three days later, telling local residents aged 18 and above they would penalized for failure to attend, the source said, adding, “The focus of the meeting was to warn people not to keep any pictures of the Dalai Lama or to share any information over their cell phones.” A second raid of houses in the township to find banned photos was then launched that same day, the source said.
