The Indian government has moved to halt a symbolic trek by Tibetan exiles to their homeland as part of protests organized in conjunction with the Beijing Olympics.
Police stopped more than 100 men and women marchers late Monday 15 kilometers from Dharamsala in northern India, home to the Tibetan government-in-exile. The marchers had set out hours earlier on the 49th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet for a six-month trek to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
A local police chief (in Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh) said he issued a restraining order on the marchers after receiving an advisory from the government in New Delhi. Police chief Atul Fulzele said the march violates an agreement between the Indian government and the Tibetan government in exile that there will be no anti-China political activities on Indian soil.
Neither the Dalai Lama nor the Tibetan government-in-exile have endorsed the march.