Police in Jieyang, Guangdong province, in the past three days have detained another five people suspected of participating in a brawl that injured 19 villagers in the city's Jiexi county late last month.
By Thursday morning 15 suspects have been detained, local police said.
Meanwhile, police said they are still searching for 23 more suspects, including an alleged local criminal gang head, Wu Guicun, dubbed "Ah Bao".
According to Lin Weizhe, director of the information office of Jiexi county, people's lives have returned to normal after the local government and police promised to spare no effort to arrest the escaped suspects and to withdraw an illegal land-lease deal that hurt villagers' legal interests.
"The government will investigate the case to the fullest extent," Lin said.
The brawl took place on Feb 22 after hundreds of Shangpu villagers from the Mianhu township protested a land-lease contract between then-village head Li Baoyu and a company backed by Wu that comes from outside the village.
Scores of thugs, led by Wu, went to Shangpu to intimidate villagers into agreeing to the land-lease contract, police said.
Nineteen villagers were injured in the subsequent melee. Eight of the thugs' vehicles were burned and more than 20 others were destroyed or damaged.
Li, who has since been in detention, had leased the village's approximately 400 mu (26.67 hectares) of farmland at a very low price to the company backed by Wu. The contract was allegedly made without most villagers' consent.
A task force headed by Xie Jun, deputy Party chief and mayor of Jieyang, was immediately established to help handle the case and hear and respond to villagers' requests, Lin said.
"After weeks of effort, now local production and people's lives have gradually returned to normal, with shops opening to business and schools resuming classes," Lin said.
Six of the villagers who were sent to hospitals for observation or treatment after the incident had been discharged by Thursday morning, Lin said.
Many villagers have begun to clear away the road blockades of their own accord in the past days, he said.
Li Shaohong, 40, a Shangpu resident, said many villagers have expressed their satisfaction about the local government's efforts in the case, particularly withdrawing the illegal land-lease deal.
"I hope the village's farmland will be used for bigger profit to help villagers get rid of the poverty," he said. "Meanwhile, the operation of the village committee and financial system will become more transparent in the following months."
According to Li, few villagers knew the financial situation of the village in the past 30 years.
No more mass incidents would occur if villagers' legal interests are protected, he added.
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