(Minghui.org) At least 28 Huaihua City, Hunan Province residents were arrested on August 29, 2022 for practicing Falun Gong. At the time of this report, one practitioner is still being held in the local detention center, while most others have been released.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

The only practitioner who is still detained, Mr. Jiang Zhonghui, was arrested by ambushing police officers as soon as he returned home at around noon on August 29. His computer and copy paper were confiscated. Mr. Jiang used to be a manager at the local post office, but was fired for upholding Falun Gong.

Another practitioner, whose name wasn’t disclosed to protect his safety, said eight plainclothes officers tried to pry open his door at around 6 a.m. When another resident in the building asked what they were doing, an officer replied that they were fixing his air-conditioner. During a brief break when the officers left, the practitioner escaped from his home. The officers came back in the afternoon, broke in, and confiscated his Falun Gong books, computer, printer, and many other Falun Gong-related materials. The police put a new lock on his door before they left. The practitioner has been forced to live away from home since.

According to an insider, the operation was orchestrated by Zhang Hua, the deputy head of Huaihua City Domestic Security Office. Most practitioners were arrested by a group of seven to twenty officers and had their homes ransacked.

In the past two decades, both Lu Tao, head of the Huaihua City Domestic Security Office, and Zhang Hua have been actively participating in the persecution.