Nepal gives three-day deadline to detained Tibetans/ENG

2012. január 15./Phayul.com/TibetPress

DHARAMSHALA, January 15: Nepal has told the 207 detained Tibetans to return back to Tibet within three days even though many of their visas allowed them to stay on in Nepal till February.

In the single biggest arrest of Tibetans on Nepali soil, police on Thursday night and Friday had arrested hundreds of Tibetans for “illegally entering” the country.

The Tibetans were arrested on the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu near Thankot for failing to provide travel documents at the entry checkpoint.

According to media reports on Saturday, the detained Tibetans were handed over to the Department of Immigration and were eventually released after all of them agreed to leave Nepal within three days.

The Tibetans, who had visas to stay in Nepal, were on their way to Kathmandu from India when they were apprehended by the police.

The mass arrests had come hours before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao paid a five-hour long visit to the Himalayan kingdom on Saturday en route to his six-day tour of three Gulf nations.

During his short stay, Wen announced $119 million in aid to Nepal while signing agreements on infrastructural developments and providing “economic and technical assistance and strengthen Nepal's police”.

The Chinese premier was scheduled to visit Nepal on December 20 last year on a three-day visit but “unilaterally” cancelled the trip at the 11th hour. Speculations were rife that security concerns and fears of Tibetan exiles organising anti-China protests led to the cancellation of the trip but officials maintained the trip was delayed due to China's "internal" reasons.