Two Tibetans shot as unrest spreads

Phayul[Monday, October 17, 2011 23:53]

By Sherab Woeser DHARAMSHALA, October 17: Two Tibetans were shot for staging a peaceful demonstration demanding an end to China’s occupation of Tibet yesterday. Multiple sources with links inside Tibet are confirming the incidence that occurred outside a police station in Serthar County, Kardze, eastern Tibet. According to sources, a group of Tibetans gathered outside the police station and started raising slogans demanding freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from exile. Reacting to the peaceful demonstration, Chinese security personnel started firing at the crowd, injuring two and arresting seven. The UK based group, Free Tibet in a report identified the two as Dawa and Druklo and said that “one was shot in the leg, the other in the torso”. “It is not known why security personnel opened fire, nor are there further details about the wellbeing and whereabouts of Dawa and Druklo, but it has been reported that they were taken from the scene by the local community,” the group said. Serthar County had recently witnessed repeated shows of discontent over Beijing’s heavy-handed rule. On October 1, a huge portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and a Tibetan national flag were unfurled from the top of a building in the central town of Serthar. Chinese authorities’ removal of the portrait and flag entailed an impromptu demonstration by over 200 Tibetans. Later on October 13, a huge Tibetan national flag and flyers demanding the return of the Tibetan spiritual leader and freedom in Tibet were pasted outside Chinese security and administrative offices in the region. Following the announcement of campaigns by the exile administration to show solidarity with the sacrifices being made by Tibetans inside Tibet, beginning with the 24-hour hunger strike by Tibetan parliamentarians tomorrow in the Indian capital of New Delhi, calls for action have also been made from inside Tibet. Sources say that envelopes containing a “call for action” on October 19 are being distributed at restaurants and shops in the Serthar region.