(Clearwisdom.net) As Falun Dafa practitioners, we were detained on the third floor of a certain brainwashing center in China. To resist the forced brainwashing and to reduce the persecution applied to us, we decided to break free from this unlawful detention. It would be relatively easy for the male practitioners to try to escape but we were not sure that the females would also be able to escape. After a discussion we reached a consensus and decided to stay but to protest by going on a hunger strike.
Just after 4 p.m. on the second day of our hunger strike, the perpetrators in the detention center started force-feeding us. We refused to swallow the fluid but they used brute force and managed to pry open our tightly closed teeth with chopsticks. Four of us were then handcuffed and beaten harshly during the forced-feeding that continued for over 4 hours. Other practitioners in the detention center followed our lead and went on hunger strikes too. Then the perpetrators transferred 11 senior practitioners to our brainwashing class. One week later, 6 more joined us.
After half a month, with righteous thoughts a practitioner successfully escaped. But he was caught four days later and forced to return to the brainwashing class. After that, we decided to run away as a group. Before we had a chance to leave, three more practitioners escaped and so the perpetrators secured the windows and door, added extra guards, and even cut branches off the trees in the yard for better visibility while monitoring us. They also started to have a roll call every three hours.
Originally, some practitioners were kept downstairs; but now we were all kept together on the third floor. On the second night after the 9 p.m. roll call, we started to send forth the righteous thoughts. With the help of Master's law body, within half an hour 18 of us had escaped through the narrow iron bars of a window. We then divided into 3 groups to travel via the mountain routes that were covered with over a foot of snow. My group almost got lost in the middle of nowhere but then saw an ice-bridge and crossed over it. After that we found a friend's house and stayed there.
The perpetrators were terribly upset and extremely tense because of our escape. They sent out 40 trucks to madly search for us door-to-door. They did not search the village we were hiding in, since it was under the protection of Master's law body. After more than 10 days of frantic but useless searching, they consulted a fortune-teller for help. The fortune-teller told them not to touch the 18 special practitioners.
Thus, as a compromise, the perpetrators yielded to our demands. They sent our personal belongings to our homes and wrote a pledge that they would not harass us anymore. They would not send us to forced labor camp, nor would they send us to brainwashing classes. So finally, we all returned to our homes safe and sound.
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