HONG KONG, June 26: Hong Kong followers of the Falungong spiritual group called Tuesday on Beijing to stop torturing mainland practitioners, claiming 233 of them had died in custody, reports AFP.
Falungong spokeswoman Sophie Xiao said the death toll among followers of the quasi-Buddhist sect had reached an "alarming stage" with at least 20 reported to have died in police custody last month alone.
This brought to 233 the number of deaths since Falungong was outlawed as an "evil cult" on the mainland almost two years ago, she said from Hong Kong, where the sect remains legal.
"We hope to bring to people's attention to the inhumanity suffered by Falungong followers in China to mark the UN international day in support of victims of torture," on Monday, said Xiao.
"We again call for global help to eradicate torture and inhumanity of Falungong practitioners on the mainland," she said. To highlight their concerns, around 100 practitioners staged a meditation exercise outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong.
They also prepared a petition to Chinese president Jiang Zemin calling on him to stop torture.
"The brutality is beyond people's imagination and the methods used in torture is beyond the limit people can endure," said Xiao, citing the use of water torture as well as electrocution and sexual abuse.
Xiao spoke of a case in which a mother and her eight-month old son from the northeastern province of Shandong died after being allegedly tortured in a labour camp in Beijing.
"The mother suffered a crushed neck and skull, while the baby had bruises on his ankles after being hung outside down," Xiao claimed.
Xiao also said there had been reports of torture methods such as Falungong practitioners being tied to motorcycles and dragged until they died, as well as sexual abuse against female sect followers. Mainland authorities consider Falungong -- which advocates clean living and daily meditative exercise -- the biggest threat to Communist Party rule since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations which were crushed in Tiananmen Square.
According to figures compiled by human rights groups, since the mainland ban was imposed around 120 Falungong followers have died in police custody with hundreds of sect leaders jailed and thousands of adherents sent to labour camps.
There have been reports Falungong could also be banned soon in Hong Kong after the territory's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa also referred to it as an "evil cult".