Armed with knives and stones, a mob attacked the police officers in Garze prefecture on Monday, killing one of them on the spot and injuring several others, a local official said.
The police fired warning shots and dispersed the lawless mobsters, the official was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency. An unconfirmed report from a rights organisation called the Tibet Support Group claimed that a monk and a farmer were also killed in Garze.
Authorities also claimed that 381 people, mostly monks, had “surrendered” in the Tibetan-populated area of southwest Sinchuan, where the police had opened fire and wounded four persons last week after the riots which had broken out in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa spilled into the nearby provinces.
China’s Minister for Public Security Meng Jianzhu visited Lhasa, vowing stricter management of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries there, the official Tibet Daily reported on Tuesday.
At least 19 people were killed and 700 injured after the pro-independence demonstrations by monks coinciding with the 1959 failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet turned violent, spiralling into the first major challenge to the communist giant in two decades.
China has poured in military and riot police in the restive Himalayan region to crush the revolt, which it alleges has been “masterminded” by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. It accused him of taking “hostage” the Beijing Olympics, to be held in August, to force it to bend on the Tibet issue. The charges have been denied by the Dalai Lama, who has accused Beijing of unleashing “cultural genocide” in Tibet.
China has been saying for the last few days that the situation in riot-hit areas was calm. But Tibetan groups claim that at least 130 people had died in the continuing protests. China said on Monday that five suspects, including three women, had been detained in connection with two riot cases in which 10 persons were burnt to death.


‘IGNORE THE LAMA’


Beijing, pti: Ignoring repeated calls for direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama, China on Tuesday asked the international community not to provide “any support in any form” to the Tibetan spiritual leader.

“We hope the international community will clearly be aware of the nature of the Dalai Lama clique (supporters of the Dalai Lama) and tell the right from the wrong,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters here, as the US and European nations stepped up pressure on Beijing to opt for the dialogue route.