Tibetan unrest claims 80 lives
2008-03-16 10:11
Dharamshala - Eighty people have been "confirmed" killed in unrest in Tibet, the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile said on Sunday.
"Regarding bodies, it's 80. We have 80 unidentified bodies," said Thubten Samphel, the spokesperson for the Tibetan administration in Dharamshala.
He said the toll had been established from "calls made from Tibet" by witnesses, and added that at least 72 people had been injured in the violence.
"At this point of time, we have 80 dead, confirmed," Tenzin Taklha, a close aide to the Dalai Lama, told AFP.
Taklha said that among the dead were 26 people killed outside Drapchi prison in Lhasa on Saturday.
"We have information from relatives and security services. Among the 80 dead, there are five girls dead in Lhasa, and on the top of this we are getting unconfirmed reports of three killed in Sichuan province" as well as the suicides of five Buddhist monks, he added.
"The majority of the people killed are Tibetans. It's very difficult to verify these things. For example, one person counted 68 other bodies in a morgue, but it's difficult to confirm," Taklha said.
- AFP