Indian police detain Tibetan protesters

Police today detained more than 100 Tibetan exiles marching in northern India to Tibet in protest at China’s staging of the Olympic Games, organisers and officials said.

Indian authorities feared the march, which began on 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 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. Organisers vowed to continue the march.

“We will have to find a way,” said Tenzin Palkyi, one of the march coordinators. “Our legal team will deal with the police.”

The march was one of several events launched on Monday as Tibetans around the world commemorated their 1959 uprising against China, including a protest by 300 Buddhist monks in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, one of the boldest public challenges to China’s rule in recent years.

The protests are believed to be the largest in the city since Beijing crushed a wave of pro-independence demonstrations in 1989.