15 Tibetans secured amid protest drama

Around 11.30 am on Friday, amid heavy police presence outside ITC Grand Chola hotel in Guindy where Xi-Jinping is staying, six Tibetans — including three women — started raising slogans against the Chinese leader. The personnel on security detail quickly bundled them into a police vehicle and took them to Guindy police station. Police said all the six had reached Chennai on Friday from Himachal Pradesh.

By 12.30 pm, six more Tibetans — including two women — were detained near the gate of Old Airport for allegedly planning to wave black flags when President Xi came out of the airport. The police recovered black clothes from the possession of the protesters, who came from Bengaluru on Thursday night by bus and reached CMBT on Friday morning. They travelled to the airport in Metro Rail, police said.

Police also detained three other Tibetan, including 2 women, who arrived by flight from Bengaluru. They were detained at the airport after security men found they carrying Tibetan literature and flag with them.

On Thursday night, Pema Ngodup, a Tibetan journalist from Radio Free Asia, an online news portal based in Washington, who came to cover the summit was also detained by Flower Bazaar police, because he was not in possession of a valid identity card, police said.

Earlier this week, the Chennai police had arrested as many as nine Tibetan, including an English professor, for allegedly planning to stage ‘Free Tibet’ protest. Villupuram police had arrested Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan activist and writer, on Sunday.

4 Chinese men held: Four Chinese nationals were detained at Pooncheri near Mahabalipuram on Friday. The police team on vehicle check near the village located between Mahabalipuram and Kalpakkam on ECR on Friday morning stopped a car. Inside were four men from China, who claimed to be in Chennai for business. They were returning fromPuducherry after a business trip. As they could not provide necessary documents, they were detained. Sources said they would be released after production of documents.