Falun Gong practitioners in Vienna highlight their plight inflicted by China

Falun Dafa is a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist tradition and it consists of two main components: self-improvement through the study of teachings, and gentle exercises and meditation.

The practitioners, who assembled at Stephansplatz square in Vienna, remained vocal about Chinese aggression against them and hold posters which criticised the Asian country's attitude.

Posters showed by them read 'Stop Tortures and Murders in China' or 'Save Falun Gong practitioners', among others.

Organizers also hosted a signature campaign where they requested people to sign their petitions against organ harvesting in China, sources said.

Apart from the photo exhibition, organizers also displayed a brief history of events that explained and elaborated Chinese persecution against them.

The Communist Party of China (CPC), which believes in state atheism, started the persecution of Falun Gong  in 1999  to wipe out the spiritual practice.

The brutal crackdown on Falun Gong adherents is characterized by propaganda campaign, a programme of enforced ideological conversion and re-education and a variety of extralegal coercive measures such as reportedly arbitrary arrests, forced labor and physical torture, sometimes resulting in death.