Nine Tibetan activists arrested in Chennai ahead of Modi-Xi Jinping summit
DHARAMSALA, 8 Oct: As many as nine Tibetan activists were arrested recently by police in Tamil Nadu allegedly for planning to carry out protests during the proposed Modi-Xi summit.
The arrests were made after the state police received intel that Tibetan Youth Congress and Students for Free Tibet-India activists were planning to stage a protest against the Chinese President, the Indian Express reported earlier today.
Off the nine activist arrested, eight of them including the national director of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) India and its two executive members, two members of Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), and the President and two members of the Tibetan Students’ Association of Madras (TSAM) were arrested late on Sunday by the Chennai City Police.
The ninth activist, Tibetan writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue has been reportedly arrested on Saturday night by Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram police in Kottakuppam, less than hundred kilometres from the venue of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bilateral talks.
The report stated that the police have recovered ‘Free Tibet’ pamphlets and a ‘Free Tibet’ flag which Tsundue had planned to display at the protest in Mahabalipuram and added that Tsundue will likely remain in police custody until Oct 18.
Meanwhile, security has been heightened across Tamil Nadu, the report said and added that police in the state have been further instructed to keep tabs on Tibetans living in settlements across the state and gather any information on possible protests.
The second India-China informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping is scheduled to be held in the coastal resort of Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu over October 11-12.
