(Minghui.org) The second half of each month's last visiting day in Binhai Prison, Tianjin is reserved for imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. In addition to family members, local practitioners also go in small numbers, keep a distance from the entrance, and offer silent support to those incarcerated. They hope that the imprisoned practitioners can go home soon without being coerced to renounce their shared beliefs by the torture and brainwashing there.
Such community support is apparently identified as threats by local authorities. Residential committees threatened practitioners in their prefects not to go to the prison area. Guards, local 610 Office and domestic security division also launched joint retaliations to videotape, disperse, and round up practitioners outside of the prison.
The most recent arrests took place on June 13, 2014. The district domestic security division dispatched four police vehicles, five black sedans with no identifiable tags, and nearly 20 policemen to arrest six practitioners. Four were released later. Practitioners Ms. Li Shuxia (李淑霞), a retired elementary school teacher, and Ms. Han Wenmin (韩文敏) have been illegally detained.
According to an eyewitness, a group of police officers surrounded Ms. Li on the sidewalk in front of Binhai Prison on June 13. She was sitting on the ground while the officers pulled on her arms. One of her acquaintances was also reported to have seen her at the Shengli Police Station that afternoon.
When Ms. Li's granddaughter came back from school, she saw several police officers ransacking her home and removing personal possessions, including Falun Gong books and flyers.
Upon learning the news of her mother's arrest, Ms. Han's daughter tracked down her whereabouts at the Shanggulin Police Station and visited there.
An officer later told her that the mother would be released after three days. The officer handed her a slip to sign. Happy that her mother would be released soon, she took the officer's advice and left the police station. She shortly realized that she was lied to—the slip was a notification stating that her mother would be detained for more than a month.
When she inquired about the reason for her mother's arrest earlier at the same police station, another officer replied that they were just following orders from Tianjin Police. When she pointed out that the entrance area of a prison was a public area and people shouldn't be arrested for being there, a young officer barked, “Our goal is to arrest all of you [Falun Gong practitioners]!”
Ms. Tang Lanying (唐兰英), 75, lives in Dagang District. She left her home at around noon on June 13 and headed toward Binhai Prison. Ms. Tang reported that after getting off the bus, she noticed an unusually small number of people in front of the prison.
A few plainclothes officers stopped her and asked, “What are you doing here?” They took her purse and found a senior ID card. As if they had been waiting for her, one of them read out her name, “Tang Lanying. She is Falun Gong. Take her away.” Ms. Tang was pushed into a nearby car and taken to the Gangbei Police Station.
While being interrogated, Ms. Tang was asked to identify another female practitioner in her sixties. She was released later that afternoon.
June 13 was not the first instance of local authorities' retaliation on practitioners outside of the prison.
When practitioner Mr. Zhou Xiangyang (周向阳) fell into critical condition as a result of torture at Binhai Prison in February 2012, his parents appealed for their son's release. The elderly couple was arrested outside of the prison on February 20, 2012. Practitioners who accompanied them were also arrested.
Two practitioners from Binhaixin District were arrested in May 2014 after being caught in surveillance videos taken outside of the prison on a visiting day.
Many practitioners imprisoned at the Binhai Prison are holding a hunger strike to resist the persecution. Mr. Huang Liqiao (黄礼乔), an engineer from Tianjin Seamless Steel Tube Plant, is one of them.
As his wife has not been allowed to visit him, she went to the prison on May 16 and shouted at the entrance, “Huang Liqiao, your wife is here to visit you!” Her demonstration drew the attention of many passersby.
Complaints are being filed against prison officials and guards. Practitioners and their families continue to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to the public to rescue those illegally incarcerated.