8 more arrested from Dza Wonpo amid heightened Chinese surveillance
DHARAMSALA, 7 Sept: With the entire region turned into a police state, Chinese authorities have arrested 8 more Tibetans from Dza Wonpo, a township in Kardze in the traditional Tibetan province of Kham, a source from the region told the Tibet Express.
“The Chinese authorities arrested 6 monks and two women from Dza Wonpo on 3 Sept,” the source from the region said.
According to the source, the monks were arrested on the orders of authorities from Dza Mae, and that their monastic quarters were ransacked by the Chinese police and army and later taken to Sershul county.
Though the source held back the name of those arrested for Sershul county over confidential reasons, it was confirmed that many among those arrested were part of a volunteer group called ‘Protectors of Mother Tongue’
Chinese authorities have placed Dza Wonpo under heightened security and this brings the total number of Tibetans arbitrarily detained by the Chinese authorities in the region to over 120 since last month.
Chinese authorities arrested 53 Tibetans between 25- 29 Aug. from Dza Wonpo while nearly 60 more Tibetans from the region were arrested between 22- 23 Aug. The The arrests were made allegedly for the possession of photos of the exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for keeping ties with Tibetans outside Tibet.
Dza Wonpo has been a hotbed of protests, it reported sporadic protests including monks hurling hundreds of pamphlets demanding Tibet’s independence in 2019 among others.
Earlier this year in April, China equated possession of Dalai Lama’s portrait to illegal possession of arms in the region.
