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Nepal police arrests seven fleeing Tibetans

AFP

A view of Dolakha Districk, which is a part of Janakpur Zone, one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal, with Charikot as its district headquarters. Police in the area arrested seven Tibetans, who were on their way to Dharamshala in India to join their exiled leader, the Dalai lama, on 17 August 2009.File photo/Photographer unknown/Nepal

Police said Monday they had arrested seven Tibetans for illegally entering the country from China.

The four men and three women were taken into custody for not having valid documents, police officer Prakash Adhikari told AFP.

Some 2,500 Tibetans used to make the dangerous trip from Chinese-controlled Tibet to Nepal every year on their way to India to join their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

But activists say the number has fallen sharply since China mobilised its military in Tibet in March 2008, and that the Nepalese government has responded to pressure from Beijing by adopting a harder line against the exiles.

“Police held seven Tibetans, including three women, as they entered Nepal over the weekend,” said Adhikari by telephone from Dolakha district, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Kathmandu.

He said the Tibetans would be handed over to the immigration department for further investigation.

Copyright © 2009 AFP

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