Police personnel near the ITC Grand Chola were kept on their toes on Friday morning as a group of Tibetans tried to stage a protest outside the hotel where Chinese President Xi Jinping is staying.
Elaborate security arrangements had been made around the hotel, and every visitor was frisked. Police personnel were posted atop all the buildings on the stretch.
Around 11 a.m., six Tibetans approached the hotel premises from the Halda Junction, after passing through metal detectors and being frisked.
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As a woman from the group started filming, a man ran towards the gates of the hotel and began waving the Tibetan flag while shouting slogans. The police nabbed him and took him to the station.
In the meantime, the other members of the group also began raising slogans. They too were taken to a police station. “They claimed to be students from Nepal at the checkpoint,” a police officer said.
Six Tibetans from Bengaluru were detained at the airport in the morning. Three more persons were nabbed near the airport in the afternoon.
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On Thursday, the Kelambakkam police arrested four students from Bengaluru who had come here to show black flags to the visiting leaders at Mamallapuram.
There were also reports that three more persons, including a radio journalist identified as Pema Ngodup, were detained on arrival at the MGR Central railway station on Thursday night. However, the police did not confirm their detention.
