The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) learnt from a reliable source that a nun staged a solo protest march in Kardze County.

According to the sources, a nun Lobsang Khandro, age 21, from Gema Dra-wok Nunnery in Thing-ka Township, Kardze County, Kardze "Tibet Autonomous Prefecture" ("TAP"), Sichuan Province had staged a solo protest march at around 10 am on 6 March 2009.

Sources told TCHRD that Lobsang Khandro began her solo protest march from Takchu Bridge till to Kardze government headquarter. She was carrying pamphlets, political literature on Tibet and some prayer flags. While during her solo protest march she shouted slogans such as "No Freedom in Tibet", "Tibetan People Rise Up, Rise Up", "Long Live the Dalai Lama" and "Chinese Authorities Release all Political Prisoners".

Few minutes after her valiant solo protest march, the Chinese security personnel rushed in five police vans and immediately arrested and subjected her to severe beatings on the spot before being taken away to a detention centre.

Sources told TCHRD that Kardze authorities detained her in a new prison recently built near a government hospital in Kardze County. When some of her friends and relatives went to Kardze police station to inquire about her well-being, they were given a response that, "If she has involved in this kind of activity, there is no other way but to die. She has committed a serious offense and crime. There is nothing left for all of you to inquire about her well-being. Moreover, all of you must not contact the outside world on this matter".

The Gema Dra-wok Nunnery is situated 16 kilometers away from Kardze County on the route to a sacred pilgrimage site of Khawa Karpo. In 2008 during the pan-Tibet protests, the nuns of Gema Dra-wok Nunnery participated in the mass uprising for which five nuns are still serving their sentence in the Chinese prison.