By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, Feb 22: Four Tibetan nationals, including three women, were arrested Saturday from Nepal’s Dolakha district after escaping Chinese-occupied Tibet, according to a Nepalese media report on Sunday.
The four Tibetans did not possess travel documents and could be deported back to Tibet, according to Nepalnews online, which quoted police as saying.
A Nepali national was also held on suspicion of helping them to cross the Tibetan border, police said adding all five persons have been handed over to the immigration department in Kathmandu.
However, the police did not disclose the name of the Tibetans arrested from Dolakha district, 90 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu, the report said.
According to Dolakha DSP Dhiraj Pratap Singh Tibetans walk for four-five days through the jungles to reach Dolakha. “They usually get ill by the time they reach here. We thus have to take them for health check-up before initiating investigations,” Singh told My Republica.
Three VDCs in Dolakha — Lamabagar, Alampu and Gaurishankhar — border Tibet.
The latest arrests took place amidst report of an additional manpower of the Armed Police Force (APF) has been deputed in Mustang for the security in the border with Tibet by Nepal government.
The additional deployment of armed police comes two weeks before the sensitive Tibetan National Uprising Day to be marked on March 10.
The battalion commander of Chandika APF Battalion, Madan Singh Khadka, said additional 19 APF personnel were sent to the border security post set up at Lomanthang from the battalion, My Republica reported Monday.
With this, Khadka said, the post has 46 APF personnel.
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.
Lomanthang, Chhoser, Charang, Surkhang, Ghami and Chhuncha of Mustang are linked with the border with Tibet.
More than 30 Tibetans have been arrested in past six months in Nepal for trying to cross the border to reach Dharamsala in India to meet the Dalai Lama.
Past estimates suggest between 2,500 and 3,000 Tibetans escape Tibet and enter Nepal each year on their way to Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan Government-in-Exile in north India.
However, the number has fallen sharply amid stepped up pressure from Beijing on Nepal to tighten security along its border with Chinese autonomous region of Tibet.
Nepal government has vowed to check anti-China activities to preserve friendly ties with the Chinese Communist regime.
Police had arrested five Tibet-bound Tibetans, including a woman, from three Bouddha-based hotels in the Capital on February 6.
Prior to that, 10 Tibetans were arrested by the police while they were entering Nepal from Tibet via Lamabagar in Dolakha district on January 17. On January 19 Nepalese authorities gain arrested two more Tibetans from the same area.
Nepal is home to around 20,000 exiled Tibetans concentrated mainly in the Kathmandu valley and Pokhara in western Nepal.
