(Clearwisdom.net) Since July 20, 1999, people from Shaanxi Province Xianyang City "610 Office" [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration of the Party, and all other political and judiciary system] and the police department have been actively persecuting Falun Gong practitioners and receiving "awards" for these activities from higher authorities. Dafa practitioners in the Xianyang area have suffered seriously from this. According to incomplete statistics, as of now more than 100 practitioners have been illegally arrested, detained, and sent to forced labor camps, and there are many more whose homes were ransacked, and who were extorted money and forced to leave their homes to avoid further persecution.

At the end of 2001, thugs led by Liu Zhiyong from the "610 Office" of Xianyang City, in conjunction with the police department, ransacked Dafa practitioners' homes and arrested practitioners wantonly. In Xianyang City Weihe Electrical Plant alone, dozens of Dafa practitioners' homes were ransacked. The criminal gangs intruded into these civilian homes, broke the locks, turned everything upside down, and then forcibly took Dafa practitioners away and detained them. As several Dafa practitioners were not at home at the time this happened, they then took their children away, and would not release the children until they extorted 3,000 to 5,000 Yuan [about US$360 to US$600, 5,000 Yuan is about one year average income] from the families. Dafa practitioner Ms. Luo Ruizhi was illegally detained in Qindu District Detention Center and was brutally tortured until she was in a deep coma. Later, her family was forced to hand in ransom money to get her released. As of now, she has been in a hospital for more than five months but has still not recovered her mental faculties.

When female Dafa practitioner Hui Zhen's (pseudonym) home was illegally searched, the police didn't find any "evidence" to use as an excuse to persecute her, but they still extorted 5,000 Yuan. They didn't even give her a receipt. Her home was ransacked again and again and she was fined again and again. This led her husband to ask for a divorce. Thus, a happy family was broken up.

In January 2002, the authorities forcefully arrested some Dafa practitioners and put them into a brainwashing class, deceiving, threatening and torturing them, and causing them great suffering.

In the middle of April of this year, the police ransacked Dafa practitioner Zhang Hua's home. They didn't have any identification (even now it is not known which police station they belonged to) but grabbed things randomly and chaotically confiscated and took away all the electronic appliances. Zhang Hua was forcefully taken away and his whereabouts are still unknown.