Tibetan businessman detained incommunicado after staging lone protest in Kardze

A Tibetan businessman has been detained incommunicado for staging a lone protest in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) County in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Sichuan Province), according to information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

Passang Wanghuk aka Ngodrug, was arrested on 4 October 2014 following his protest against the Chinese government at the main market in Kardze County.

“In front of a huge assembled crowd at the main market in Kardze [County], Passang Wangchuk staged a protest against the Chinese government at around 10.50 am Saturday, 4 October 2014,” a source told TCHRD.

Passang Wangchuk was holding a white banner, emblazoned with slogans demanding human rights, freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. “He shouted slogans for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and religious freedom in Tibet, while showing his banner to the assembled crowd. After raising these slogans for about ten minutes, he was arrested by the police,” said the source. Police took him to a detention center in Kardze County. His whereabouts and condition remain unknown at the moment.

“He is a great patriot and deeply cares about his people. He engages in charity work. Although he is doing well as a businessman, he always bemoaned the lack of freedom in Tibet. He didn’t shy away from expressing this truth,” added the source.

Passang Wangchuk is not the only one from his family to have protested against the Chinese government. His older sister, a nun named Poewang, served two years and six months in prison for her participation in the 2008 Tibet uprising. Although she has been released, she suffers from physical disabilities due to the torture she suffered in prison.

Passang Wangchuk was born at Buchu Yarkhab village in Serchu Township in Kardze County, in the Tibetan province of Kham, in 1977 to father Chowang Gyatso and mother Ringa. He has a wife called Sonam, two daughters and a son.