Dharamsala, Feb 24: China is all set to resume suspended bus services between Lhasa, capital of the Chinese-occupied Tibet, and Kathmandu in Nepal.
If all goes as planned, the suspended bus service between Kathmandu and Lhasa is likely to resume within few days, according to a Nepalese media report.
The report said the decision to resume the direct bus service was taken during a two-day meeting between officials of the Nepal Tourism Board and Tibet Tourism Administration few months ago.
Nepal’s tourism officials had started work on the direct bus service in order to insert a new momentum to the upcoming Nepal Tourism Year 2011, the report said.
The trans-Himalayan bus service, which commenced on May 1, 2005, was suspended in 2006 after a political fallout over issuance of visas to Tibet and due to transportation permit hassles.
In the past, deadlines have been set for resumption of services but were not met. One such notable deadline was January 1, 2008, the year China hosted the Beijing Olympics.
China’s February-end deadline fixed for the resumption of the bus service seems to have become a cause of concern for New Delhi.
According to a report by The Tribune on Sunday, Indian intelligence agencies have informed the government about the early resumption of the Tibet-Nepal bus services.
The matter was also discussed among Indian security agencies a couple of weeks ago, the report said.
Indian strategists construe resumption of the bus service by China in two ways – China firstly wants to tell India that it will not relinquish its strategic toe-hold in Nepal and continue to strive for more as both counties fight for more military ties in the Himalayan kingdom, the report said.
The second, according to the report, is to show the Lhasa-Kathmandu route as the first legitimate and regular land approach to Tibet from outside China.
China also aims at bringing in Indian, European and North American tourists into Tibet from the Nepal route, according to media reports.
This, the Tribune report said, will mean that China is eager to show “normalcy” in Tibet.
Nepal this week deputed additional Armed Police Force (APF) in Mustang, which borders Tibet, to check escaping Tibetan refugees, and its police in Dolkha district, some 90 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu, arrested four Tibetan refugees, including three women, after they escaped Chinese-occupied Tibet.
More than 30 Tibetans have been arrested in past six months in Nepal for trying to cross the border to reach Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in north India, to meet the Dalai Lama.
The additional deployment of armed police comes two weeks before the sensitive Tibetan National Uprising Day to be marked on March 10.
Acting under heavy Chinese influence, the Nepalese government has lately over intensified its security to prevent Tibetan activists from taking part in peaceful demonstrations.
Nepal last year announced its decision to tighten Tibet border by deploying armed police for the first time in its history along its northern Mustang-Tibet border, raising criticism that the move was prompted by pressure from China.
