Nepal releases Tibetans arrested near Indian border

By Lobsang Tenchoe

All of the forty-one Tibetans arrested on Monday by the Nepalese police on a private bus bound for pilgrimage in India were set free but uncertainty looms about their future.

“All the 41 Tibetans have been released,” The New York Times quoted Kate Saunders, an advocate of the International Campaign for Tibet, as saying in its report.

Of the 41 Tibetans arrested, 39 of them were released on Nov 17 after their Chinese passports were verified by authorities in Kathmandu, following negotiations initiated by Human Rights Organization with the Nepalese authorities,.

The remaining two Tibetans holding Identity Certificates (IC) issued by the Indian government were withheld for their documents to be verified with the Indian Government but they were released a day later after completing the verification.

The forty-one Tibetans (24 males and 17 females) mostly from traditional Kham and Amdo provinces of Tibet were arrested at Dhangadhi town near the Indian border for traveling without documents on Nov 14.