By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, June 9: A group of Tibetan refugees who entered Nepal after escaping Chinese-occupied Tibet were robbed on their way last week, a Nepalese daily newspaper has reported.
Eight Tibetan refugees en route to Charikot from Lamabagar in Nepal were robbed near Jhamarsi in Lamidanda VDC on Friday night, The Himalayan Times said. The amount of cash and property robbed is yet to be confirmed, it said.
The report, however, did not specify the source of the robbery information. It is also not clear from the report whether the police have arrested the Tibetan refugees.
Dhiraj Pratap Singh, DSP in the district, told the newspaper that he had received a message that “of the eight Tibetans who had illegally entered Nepal, one had travelled to Kathmandu and seven others were on the way to the district headquarters.”
DSP Singh said security had been tightened in border areas of the district.
Another group of 10 Tibetans who had entered Nepal illegally were also robbed of Rs 44,000 in Banchare of Lamidanda last Wednesday, the report said, citing police as saying. The group was later arrested by police and were handed over to the Nepalese Immigration Office, it said.
According to the report, more than 62 Tibetans have entered Nepal from the Lamabagar entry point in the last few months. Tibetans arrive at Dolakha, which is some 90 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu, after walking for nearly five days.
Police estimate that hundreds of Tibetans might have entered Nepal from other entry points in the district.
“As the number of Tibetans entering Nepal from areas bordering Dolakha district increases, instances of them falling victims to robbery have also gone up,” the report said.
DSP Singh said, “Most of them fall sick because of the long trek they have to take and the nights that they spend in the forests.” He also said Tibetans are robbed in Nepal as they cannot speak Nepali and often fall ill due to the tiresome journey they have to make.
Every year, many Tibetans escape via Nepal to India, often after undertaking risky journey across the harsh terrains of the Himalayas. Statistics show that approximately a third are children who are sent to study in Tibetan exile schools in India. Several monks and nuns travel to India to seek religious education, which the Tibetans say, is made difficult in Tibet due to restrictions placed on monasteries and nunneries by the Chinese Communist government.
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. The number has slowed down dramatically since 2008 after Nepal beefed up security along its border with Tibet following ‘Chinese pressure’.
Nepal government has vowed to check anti-China activities to preserve friendly ties with the Chinese Communist regime.
Recently Nepal announced its decision to tighten Tibet border by deploying armed police for the first time along its northern Mustang-Tibet border, raising criticism that the move was prompted by pressure from China.
