Dharamsala, Feb 27: Nepal Police said Friday they have detained 17 Tibetans– seven men and ten women – from Nepal’s Dolakha district after escaping Chinese-occupied Tibet, according to media reports.
They were arrested on Thursday evening at Lamabagar in Dolakha district, which is some 90 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu.
They will be taken in custody at Dolakha Police Office for three days due to public holidays on Saturday and Sunday.
“We will hand them over to the Department of Immigration (in Kathmandu) on Monday after interrogation,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Dhiraj Pratap Singh, chief of police in Dolakha district, told Kyodo News by phone.
Police said the arrested were on their way to meet Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama in India.
Nepal has lately over intensified its security to prevent Tibetan activists from taking part in peaceful demonstrations and has tightened security along its border with Tibet in an attempt to prevent fleeing Tibetan refugees as part of its commitment to stop “anti-China activities” on its soil.
Just last week, police in Dolkha district arrested four Tibetan refugees, including three women.
Earlier this week, Chinese pressure succeeded in stopping top Nepalese officials from attending the birth centenary celebrations of a revered Tibetan lama in Kathmandu.
Nepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav, Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala, who is also the deputy prime minister, and Culture Minister Minendra Rijal have received invitations to attend the birth centenary celebrations of the monk at a Tibetan monastery in Kathmandu.
However, the officials have distanced themselves from the Tibetan monastery under pressure from China, IANS reported.
The Tibetan monastery is celebrating the birth centenary celebrations of Dilgo Khyentse, born in 1910 in Tibet, one of the best known luminaries of Tibetan Buddhism and a leader of the Nyingma sect, one of the oldest major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. This year, Shechen monasteries worldwide are celebrating the birth centenary of the monk.
The Chinese embassy in Kathmandu reportedly conveyed its anger over the invitations to Nepal’s foreign ministry, saying any acceptance would be regarded as a gross violation of Nepal’s avowed commitment towards China.
Also this week, Nepal deputed additional Armed Police Force (APF) in Mustang near Tibet border, mainly to check fleeing Tibetan refugees.
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.
Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal met visiting Chinese official Liu Jieyi, Vice Minister of the International Department of Communist Party of China Central Committee, at the his official residence in Kathmandu Thursday.
In their talks, according to Chinese state media, Liu Jieyi appreciated Nepali government’s “consistent and firm support” not to allow “anti-China activities” in Nepal, and in return promised “bilateral cooperations in various fields” to the impoverished and crisis-stricken country.
In recent years China has been regularly sending flurry of high-level delegations to Nepal, to remind the Nepalese authorities to curb “Free Tibet activities” ahead of sensitive anniversaries.
The latest developments in Nepal come ahead of approaching sensitive Tibetan National Uprising Day to be marked on March 10.
