Police in Nepal have arrested two Tibetan activists for posting anti-China leaflets days before Democracy Day, observed by Tibetans in Nepal on September 2.
Local police officials say Kelsang Nordup and Tashi Dawa were detained on August 29 in the town of Boudha. The leaflets were connected with a major demonstration scheduled for Democracy Day.
The two exiled Tibetans are leaders of the Nepal-based New Age Network, a group involved in organizing anti-China protests in the Kathmandu area.
Nepal's government says it adheres to a one-China policy and does not permit politically motivated rallies.
Nepal is home to about 20,000 exiled Tibetans who began arriving in large numbers in 1959 after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against the Chinese.
Approximately 2,500 Tibetan refugees escape into exile annually, travelling through Nepal en route to Dharamsala in northern India where their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile are based. However the number of the Tibetan refugees escaping from Nepal has decreased in the recent years following China’s growing influence in Nepal.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and PTI
