New Delhi: A group of Tibetan refugees today claimed that they were fired upon indiscriminately by the Chinese Army while travelling to India near the Sino-Nepal border, killing two persons.
Ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to India, ‘Friends of Tibet’, an NGO campaigning for a free Tibet, said the incident happened on September 30 when a group of 77 Tibetans were crossing the Nangpa La pass.
They also showed a 10-minute video footage of the firing, which they claimed was shot by a Romanian mountaineering team camping near the pass as part of their expedition.
The footage showed a group of persons, walking in a single line and wearing black dresses, climbing the snow-clad mountains and the person leading them falling down after being hit by bullets.
“We were crossing the Himalayas enroute India to meet the Dalai Lama when we were fired upon by the Chinese troops,” Lobsang Choendhen,a young Tibetan who survived the incident, told reporters here.
He is also seen in the video footage hiding in a tent of the Romanian mountaineers.
Lobsang said two persons were killed, 32 were taken away by the Chinese Army while the rest managed to reach India.
Tibetans generally trek to India crossing the icy Himalayas via Nepal to meet their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who heads the Tibetan government in exile at Dharamsala.
Most of them undertake the ardous trek, which takes 18-20 days, to get a glimpse of the Lama or to pursue religious studies at numerous Buddhist monasteries spread across India.
