A Tibetan monk who completed the jail term of six years was freed from Sichuan province in a physically disable state incurred from severe torture in prison during the term. The Tibetan monk completed his full jail term and came out with permanent injuries to his legs that was caused by beatings while in the police custody.
“A Tibetan monk jailed for six years for taking part in Tibetan freedom protests has been freed from prison in China’s Sichuan province after serving his full term, but has suffered permanent injuries to his legs from beatings while in custody, Tibetan sources say.” said the report in the Radio Free Asia on Friday.
Geshe Tsewang Namgyal, formerly a monk at the Draggo monastery in Sichuan’s Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was released on Jan. 24, according to the report and it was informed that he is now able to walk normally. He was arrested along several others in the year 2012, just a year after returning to Tibet from India, during the Chinese New Year after a peaceful demonstration in Draggo during which the police fired at the protesters killing one.
China heavily restricts the Tibetans inside Tibet from gathering or speaking about freedom. Holding peaceful demonstrations are restricted as a serious crime against the country and severely repressed with the free use of arms. While His Holiness the Dalai Lama is regarded as an enemy by China, possession of his pictures among his Tibetan followers in Tibet are considered as serious crime to land into jail.
“Tibet’s India-based exile government later quoted sources saying that six were then killed in what it described as “indiscriminate firing” by the police. Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.” added the report.