The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) confirmed that Gō Sherab Gyatso also known as Gosher was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court a month ago, following news of the sentencing that surfaced on social media on Human Rights Day last Friday.
A notice issued by a provincial unit of the Buddhist Association of China (BAC), China’s state supervisory body on Buddhism, has called for the prevention and restriction of the ‘illegal’ propagation of Tibetan Buddhism in Zhejiang province located in the eastern part of the People’s Republic of China.
In its latest attempt to intensify hard-line policies, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has relaunched the “strike hard” campaign to systematically curtail Tibetan political dissent and to control religious institutions. A series of recent official meetings held in Lhasa has re-affirmed the need to curb dissidence by “striking hard” in the “Tibet Autonomous Region”(TAR).
According to the State media China Tibet Information Centre (www.tibetinfor.com) and Lhasa Evening daily on 4 November 2004, “the “Strike hard” campaign for the winter – 1 November to 30 December 2004 – in Lhasa, TAR, has begun. The current campaign aims to eliminate internal secret splittist groups, separatists based outside, influence on religion, terrorists and their activities, criminal activities, stability stiflers and exile returnees linked with splittist groups.”