By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, March 17 – At least two dozen Tibetans held in two different detention centres in the Nepalese capital since their arrests on March 10 and March 14 have gone on an indefinite hunger strike, sources said.
Police have been put on alert to rush the exiles to hospitals if their health deteriorates, Katmandu police Chief Ganesh Chettri told reporters.
Sixteen Tibetan exiles were arrested after they attempted to storm the Chinese Embassy in Nepal’s capital earlier on March 10. Another 11 including three women were arrested on March 14 for carrying out protest demonstration in the “restricted zone” of the Chinese Consular Section at Hattisar in the capital to commemorate the second anniversary of 2008 Lhasa protests. The demonstrators chanted free Tibet slogans and called for greater international efforts against the continued Chinese rule in their homeland.
The Tibetans were ordered to be held without trial for 90 days under Nepal’s ‘public security act’.
Tibetans in Nepal have been protesting regularly against China since 2008, after unrest across Tibet were suppressed with violent military crackdown by Chinese Communist authorities.
Acting under heavy Chinese influence, the Nepalese government has lately intensified its security to prevent Tibetan activists from taking part in peaceful demonstrations.
Those who defied government order were stopped by Nepali police, often using excessive force. The demonstrators regularly faced arrests, intimidation and in some cases individual threats and arbitrary detention.
Earlier last week, Nepal increased security along its northern border and banned protests near the Chinese embassy.
Nepal’s brutal handling of Tibetan protesters had come under intense international criticism and the government had been accused of cracking down on the refugees under Chinese pressure.
