(Minghui.org) Fifteen residents of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, including an 86-year-old man, were arrested in three days in July 2019 for not renouncing their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. One of the practitioners' two children, who do not practice Falun Gong, were also arrested.
Earlier this month, several group arrests of Falun Gong practitioners have been reported throughout the country, including in the provinces of Jilin, Sichuan, Hebei, Shandong, and Liaoning.
It was reported that the arrests in Jiamusi City were orchestrated by the Public Security Bureau in Heilongjiang Province. Some local police stations in Jiamusi were given quotas. The police monitored the practitioners' phone calls, their daily activities through surveillance cameras, and physically followed them before carrying out the arrests.
Ms. Feng Guifen was arrested first, on the afternoon of July 25. Ms. Che Hongyu, who happened to be visiting Ms. Feng, was also arrested. Both of their homes were ransacked. The officers are monitoring their homes now, in order to arrest other practitioners who may come to visit them.
Although Ms. Feng was released later that evening because of her medical condition, Ms. Che remains detained at Changqing Police Station and is being interrogated. It's reported that the police attempted to force her to provide information about a local, home-based material printing site.
The next morning, Qianjin Police Station officers broke into Ms. Fan Guiqin's home. They ransacked it and arrested her in front of her bedridden husband. All of her Falun Gong books, a photo of the practice's founder, and related materials were confiscated.
In the afternoon, the police arrested and interrogated Ms. Fan's son and daughter, Mr. Wen Cai and Ms. Wen Hua, neither of whom practice Falun Gong. The police threatened to arrest Ms. Fan's younger sister, Ms. Fan Guifen, who is now forced to live away from home to hide from the police.
Another group of officers from the Xiangyang Police Department broke into Mr. Yang Minjiang's home at 6 p.m. on July 26. They ransacked it and confiscated his computer. Mr. Yang was taken to the Chang'an Police Station for interrogation. The police also arrested his supervisor and a colleague at work on the same day and held them at the police station until 9 p.m.
Mr. Yang was given ten days of administrative detention and has been admitted to Jiamusi Detention Center.
It has also been confirmed that Mr. Che Weiqi, 86; a male practitioner surnamed Duan; a female practitioner surnamed Shi; and another male practitioner whose name remains to be investigated were also arrested on July 26, 2019.
In addition to the above-mentioned practitioners, Mr. Zhang Guohai; Ms. Duan Yifa; a female practitioner surnamed Li, in her 60s; and a female practitioner surnamed Dong and her mother, sister, and brother-in-law were arrested on July 27.
Some practitioners were harassed during those three days. Some officers stayed outside their homes to monitor them.
More details about the arrests are still being investigated.
It's also been reported that officials from the provincial Public Security Bureau were still in Jiamusi City at the time of writing. It's not clear whether they were planning further arrests or detentions of local practitioners.
