For the second day in a row, Tibetans living in the Capital managed to breach the heavy security cover thrown around various venues for the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping and managed to stage protests. At a time when ordinary people found it difficult to travel on the city roads due to heavy police deployment, the fact that the Tibetans managed to reach near India Gate raised many eyebrows.
While on Wednesday the protesters had managed to reach right outside the Chinese Embassy, on Thursday they reached as far as the periphery of Hyderabad House where Mr. Xi was in meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Despite the heavy police presence in the entire New Delhi area, the protesters reached Copernicus Marg in their vehicles and from there they marched till the boundary walls of Hyderabad House to stage a protest.
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The protest added to the woes of commuters who were already facing a harrowing time because some roads around the C-Hexagon circle had been closed to traffic due to the presence of the dignitaries in the vicinity.
The Delhi Police, however, are not calling the protest a security lapse and are claiming that the protesters were detained as soon as they reached near the periphery of the building. A police officer said: “The Tibetans walked to Hyderabad House from Copernicus Marg. We cannot stop people from walking on the road. But when they tried to go near the building, we detained them.”
The New Delhi district police detained 35 protesters near Hyderabad House under preventive sections. Another eight were detained at San Martin Marg where they were trying to stage a similar protest.
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Another protest was reported from Dhaula Kuan as well where a protester carrying a Tibetan flag climbed a pillar to express his anger over the Chinese President’s visit to India. He started shouting slogans and it took the security personnel a while to get him down.