By Xinhua
Lhasa (China) : Tibetan authorities issued a notice Saturday urging rioters to surrender and offering leniency to those who give up violence even as the toll in the riots rose to 10.
More than 580 people, including three Japanese tourists, were rescued from banks, supermarkets, schools and hospitals that were set alight by violent saboteurs, Tibetan authorities said Saturday.
Local officials said in the notice that the rioters set fire to schools, hospitals, children’s entertainment centres, shops and houses, and assaulted law enforcement officers.
The unrest since March 10 in Lhasa is “a political conspiracy plotted by the Dalai clique to split Tibet from the motherland and sabotage the peaceful and harmonious life enjoyed by people of all ethnic groups in Tibet”, it said.
The notice demanded the rioters to surrender by Monday and promised leniency for those who give up.
Citizens who report lawbreakers or crimes to authorities will be rewarded and be given due protection, it said.