The London-based Free Tibet Campaign reported Friday that Chinese police opened fire on hundreds of Buddhist monks and lay people who had marched on local government offices to demand the release of two monks detained for possessing photographs of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader.

The report indicates continuing unrest in Tibetan areas despite a massive security presence imposed after sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations broke out last month in Tibet’s capital Lhasa and neighboring provinces.

Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the London-based Free Tibet Campaign, said the incident originated at the Tonkhor monastery in Kardze with government attempts to enforce a new “patriotic education campaign” — a program of ideological indoctrination blamed for stirring deep resentment among monks. The campaign demands that monks denounce the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism who fled to India amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Whitticase said the chief monk, Lobsang Jamyang, refused to allow a government team to enter on Wednesday, but they returned Thursday with a force of about 3,000 paramilitary troops. The two monks, Geshi Sonam Tenzing and Tsultrim Phuntsog, were detained after photos of the Dalai Lama were found among their belongings.

Soon afterward, the monastery’s 370 monks marched on local government headquarters to demand their release, joined by about 400 lay people, Whitticase said. The group left after being told the two monks would be freed at 8 p.m., but returned after officials reneged. Along the way, they were confronted by troops at a road block, who opened fire on the crowd, Whitticase said.

Whitticase provided the names of six of the eight people reportedly killed, who included at least three women and one monk. He said information on the incident had been relayed by a monk at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in southern India, who received it from anonymous contacts in Kardze.

The Chinese government controlled newspaper, Xinhua, made no mention of deaths or injuries among protesters, but said a “riot” had flared up Thursday night outside government offices in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture high in the mountains in Sichuan province along the border with Tibet.

Xinhua said an official was “attacked and seriously wounded,” and said police were “forced to fire warning shots and put down the violence.” No other details were given.

Related coverage: Times Online Exclusive: Chinese police kill eight after opening fire on monks and Tibet protesters