DHARAMSHALA, February 22: Chinese authorities in Tsawa Dzogang region of eastern Tibet arrested six Tibetans and brutally beat them, leaving two with broken bones, after an anti-China protest erupted in the area on February 10.

Several Tibetans carried out a protest against China’s rule in front of the local Chinese government office in Meye town on the eve of the Tibetan new year, Losar. The protesters raised slogans for religious freedom in Tibet and also pasted posters calling for Tibet’s independence.

The next day, on February 11, the first day of the Tibetan new year, a large contingent of Chinese security personnel arrived in the town and arrested the six Tibetans for their alleged involvement in the protest.

According to Dharamshala based new portal Tibet Express, the Tibetans were brutally beaten after their arrest.

“One of the arrested sustained two broken ribs while another’s arm was broken in the ruthless beating,” a report said.

However, due to severe clampdown on the internet and phone lines in the region, the identities, current condition and whereabouts of the six Tibetans remain unknown.

In 2009, a Tibetan died after he was brutally beaten by Chinese police in the same Dzogang region for staging a protest with two others.

The three Tibetans, Thinley Ngodrub, 24, his brother Thargyal, 23, and Pema Tsepak, 24, all from Tsawa Dzogang, had carried out a protest parading a white banner reading "Independence for Tibet" and raised numerous slogans.

The three were arrested and brutally beaten. Pema, who sustained serious injuries to his intestine and kidney was taken for treatment at the Dzogang county hospital but he was so serious that he had to be taken to prefecture hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.