A group of Tibetan graduates staged a peaceful protest against unfair dismissals from jobs that later ended in detention in Machu (Ch: Maqu) County in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, in Tibet’s Amdo province. The protest took place at around 3:30 pm local time on 8 April 2016 in front of the county government office. About 29 graduates took part in the protest holding a banner in Tibetan and Chinese that read: “Reform public sector employment practices by blocking outside graduates!”
Local police later broke up the protest and detained the protesters at the county detention centre. At 3 am the next day on 9 April, the police officers summoned the parents of the protesters to the detention centre to warn them before releasing the protesters. Sources with contacts in Tibet reported that while in detention, the protesters has been beaten up and intimidated. Parents of the protesters were warned against storing or sharing any pictures or information related to the protest on their mobile phones failing which they would be jailed for three to four years.