Two Tibetan businessmen have been arrested in Sichuan Province after the authorities found them possessing photos of their exiled spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama according to fresh reports in the Radio Free Asia. This arrested comes very soon after the Chinese authorities launched a campaign against the spiritual leader’s followers inside Tibet.
“Authorities in western China’s Sichuan province have detained two Tibetan businessmen found in possession of photos of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, amid a campaign begun earlier this year to combat “criminal gangs and bad elements” in the region, according to a Tibetan source.” said the report in the Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
Tibetan businessmen, one identified as Yama Tashi while the other’s identity is still unclear are both restaurant owners at a place called Rimakor in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s Draggo county according to the report. They were taken into custody earlier in June and have since been kept in detention according to the source of the report.
Earlier this year, the public security bureau in Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region in a bid to suppress the pro-Tibet activities in Tibet, has released details on how the public can provide tips on activities of “criminal gangs connected to the separatist forces of the Dalai Lama.” It warned the local people to lookout for the forces of the Dalai Lama that might use their controls “to confuse and incite” people against the Party and government. This has led to intensified crackdown with tightened controls imposed on all Tibetans.
With the approaching 83rd birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Chinese agents will be intensifying their restrictions across the regions of Tibet. The local police while scanning throughout Draggo in carrying out a clean-up campaign against ‘criminal gangs’ and ‘bad social elements’ at the direction of higher authorities, images of the Dalai Lama were discovered during a police raid of the men’s homes according to the report.
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