At least 90 Tibetan students detained within two days over Xi visit
DHARAMSALA, Sep 18: Within two days, at least ninety Tibetan students have been detained by Indian police in two different Indian states to make sure that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to India, since he became China’s President a year ago, goes on smoothly.
Around eighty Tibetan students were detained in Vadodara, Gujrat on Sep 16, a day before Xi landed in the state to begin his three-day maiden visit.
Although the Tibetan students, who were also members of Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, were promised a few days earlier that they would be allowed to stage a peaceful protest at a designated place, the Gujarat police on Tuesday arrived at the Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, Vadodara and detained around eighty Tibetan students in a big hall.
Later they were put in several police vans and taken away. Some of them who refused to get into the van and resisted were manhandled, according to sources.
Separately, on Sep 17 at least ten Tibetan students from Tibetan Youth Hostel located in Rohini, Delhi were detained by Delhi police after they staged demonstrations in front of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.
They are currently being held at the Chanakyapuri police station.
Chinese President Xi is on a three-day visit from Sep 17-19 and is expected to announce 100 billion dollars of investments in developmental projects, including industrial parks, power generation and even bullet trains. Though Prime Minister Modi and President Xi are expected to touch upon various issues of global and regional concern as well as bilateral issues such as revival of the ancient silk route, bilateral trade deficit in China’s favour, boundary issues, stapled visas to Indians from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, economic co-operation will be highest on the agenda, according to media reports.
The arrested Tibetan students are members of Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest pro-independence Tibetan organization with more than 35,000 members. The Tibetan students were protesting against China’s repressive rule in Tibet and at the same time urging Indian Prime Minister Modi to raise the issue of Tibet with President Xi.
