On September 17, 4:30am, in Laishui County, Hebei Province, 24 practitioners came to Shiping Farmer's Market to practice Falun Gong exercises and study the Fa. They promoted the Fa and showed its glory to the nearby passengers. After 5:00 am, several police vehicles arrived. Police started to beat the practitioners using tree branches and they also used leather shoes to beat practitioners' faces. Finally, they arrested all 24 practitioners and detained them in a local police station.
In the station, police kept on beating practitioners. Suddenly, two of the police fell down unconscious. Other police had an abnormal feeling in their bodies in the evening. The next day, the police dared not to beat the practitioners. So, they tried to make practitioners beat each other. When the practitioners refused to do so, the police started to abuse practitioners again. Out of a total of 24 practitioners arrested, 3 were detained as criminals and 21 were forced to do heavy labor (sifting sand).
On October 3, 1:00 am, based on a list of names of practitioners who went to Beijing on July 20, Laishui County police started to arrest large numbers of practitioners without any reason. Except one practitioner whose village head refused to cooperate, over 80 practitioners from all the other villages were arrested and forced to do heavy labor (sifting sands) together with the 21 previously arrested practitioners. Family members were not allowed to see the practitioners and were told to wait at least two weeks.
