Falun Dafa Practitioners Go on Hunger Strike to Protest their Illegal Detention and Torture

More than 30 male Falun Gong practitioners in Pi County of Chengdu City in Sichuan Province are now in their 7th day of a hunger strike to protest their illegal detention and inhumane torture. Over 60 female practitioners are planning to start a hunger strike on March 15. The situation is very urgent.

On the first day of 2002, 18 Falun Gong practitioners from Pi County went to Beijing to appeal and were arrested and imprisoned. On Chinese New Year' Eve, 2002, Chen Zhengming, secretary of the Party Committee in Pi County, and Zhang Xiazhi, deputy head of Pi County police department and also director of the local "610" office, issued orders to illegally arrest 106 local Falun Gong practitioners to prevent them from any further appeal. Many practitioners hadn' done anything and were arrested directly from their homes. The arrested practitioners have been imprisoned in the detention centre of Pi County for more than 30 days, during which they have been severely beaten and maltreated. In order to protest such atrocities, over 30 male Falun Gong practitioners decided to begin a hunger strike on March 4 and are now in their 7th day. In addition, over 60 female practitioners planned to start the hunger strike if they were not released when the Chinese People' Congress finishes on March 15.

Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/3/19/20009.html