India stops 300 Tibetans from marching to Lhasa

May 19, 2008, 10:26 GMT

New Delhi - More than 300 Tibetans who were stopped from marching to Lhasa on India's border with China's Tibetan Autonomous Region have resorted to camping in the area, a news agency reported Monday.

The group of Tibetans, which was marching to Lhasa to protest against China's alleged atrocities in Tibet and to demand Tibetan independence, were stopped by Indian authorities in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state, the Press Trust of India reported.

The Tibetan marchers, mostly monks, were camping in the Seraghat area in the district that lies more than 400 kilometres north-east of Indian capital New Delhi.

'We have requested the marchers to turn back from here and we are committed not to let them go ahead for their own security reasons but instead they have been camping in the Seraghat for the last three days,' District Magistrate, D Santhil Pandian told the PTI.

Meanwhile, local police officials said that the Tibetans could be shifted to another area shortly.

The report said that about 500 security personnel from the police and the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were deployed at the camping site.

The Tibetan group began their journey on March 10 from Dharamsala, the seat of their spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, to coincide with the Tibetan Uprising Day.

'The march is aimed at drawing the attention of the world to China's repressive regime in Tibet,' B Tsering, one of the organizers of the march, said earlier.

More than 100,000 Tibetan refugees live in India along with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The Indian government has said that it would not stop the peaceful demonstrations by Tibetans but it cannot allow the refugees in India to cross borders without the required documents.