Reuters reports on the attack of a government office in Qinghai:
A government office in an ethnic Tibetan part of China’s western province of Qinghai was attacked by about 20 people after a man being probed for Tibet independence activities went missing, state media said on Sunday.
Zhaxi Sangwu was taken in for investigation on Friday for “being involved in advocating Tibet independence”, the official Xinhua news agency cited police as saying.
“He managed to run away from the police station Saturday afternoon on the excuse of using the bathroom,” it added, following which a crowd gathered and attacked a government office.
Update: Almost 100 Tibetans have reportedly been detained in connection with the attack. From VOA:
Xinhua says the monks were among hundreds of rioters who assaulted police and government workers at the police building Saturday, injuring some officials. It says the riot happened in the town of Ragya in the Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province.
The Chinese news agency says police later caught six of the rioters and detained another 89 who turned themselves in. It says all but two of those arrested are monks from a local monastery.
Western news agencies quote a resident of Ragya and a Tibetan exile who lived there as saying the protesters were angry about the apparent suicide of a monk.
Xinhua says the monk escaped from a prison earlier Saturday and jumped into the Yellow River before disappearing. Chinese authorities had arrested him on suspicion of promoting Tibetan independence.
