Indian police detain Tibetan exiles marching in protest

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Police detained more than 100 Tibetan exiles marching in northern India to Tibet in protest of China's Olympic Games early Thursday morning, organizers and officials said. Indian authorities feared the march, which began Monday and was expected to last about six months, could embarrass Beijing. Police had banned the exiles from leaving the Kangra district that surrounds Dharmsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Shortly after the protesters set off early Thursday morning, police stopped the march in the town of Dehra, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the district boundary, and forced about 130 protesters into buses. The protesters shouted "Free Tibet" and other slogans as they were being detained, but there was no violence at the scene, witnesses said.