Another Tibetan shot dead by Chinese police
Chinese police shot dead another Tibetan protester in the restive Sichuan province, rights groups said on Friday, bringing to at least three the number killed in deadly clashes this week.
Urgen, a 20-year-old Tibetan, died on Thursday in Sichuan’s Rangtang county when police fired into a crowd trying to stop them from detaining another man, the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and India-based TCHRD said.
It was the third reported deadly clash this week in western Sichuan — which has big populations of ethnic Tibetans, many of whom complain of repression — in the worst unrest in Tibetan-inhabited regions in years.
Security forces also fired into two separate crowds of protesters in Luhuo and Seda towns on Monday and Tuesday — also in Sichuan, a province in China’s southwest that borders Tibet — killing at least two.
A Rangtang government official surnamed Wu told AFP on Friday that there had been no protest.
“It is not convenient to talk about this. There is no need to contact others at this moment. Nobody will tell you anything,” he said.
Calls to at least 16 places in Rangtang including restaurants and hotels were either met with no comments or respondents said they had no knowledge of the matter.
According to ICT and TCHRD, which have sources with contacts in the area, the incident in Rangtang was triggered by a youth named Tarpa, who posted a leaflet stating Tibet must be free and the Dalai Lama must return.
He printed his name and photo on the leaflet and said authorities could arrest him if they wanted, ICT said. Later that day, security forces came to detain him at home, and as they were taking him away, people tried to stop them. Police then shot into the crowd, killing Urgen, the group said.
