‘Tibetan breaches Wen security’
(The Telegraph | April 10, 2005)

A Tibetan breached the security cordon at the Indian Institute of Science here and shouted anti-China slogans during the Chinese Premier's interaction with scientists today.

Tenzing Tsundue, general secretary of an organisation called Friends of Tibet, sent the city police and security personnel into a tizzy for 20 minutes.

He shouted "Free Tibet" and "Wen Jiabao, you cannot silence us" from the balcony of a 200-ft-high tower over the administrative block, the meeting venue, and called out his name to the media.

He also hurled hundreds of pamphlets in English and Kannada — thrice headlined "Let there be peace in Tibet", waved a flag of Tibet, and unfurled a red banner that read "Free Tibet".

"We want to tell Wen Jiabao that there will be no peace in Tibet unless the Chinese leave and start living as a neighbour, as they used to be for thousands of years. So, let there be peace in Tibet," the pamphlets read.

His slogans in English were interspersed with statements in Hindi: "Tibet ki azadi hona chahiye (Tibet should be set free)" and "China pachas salon main hamare bahuth sare logon ko maar dala (China killed several Tibetans over 50 years)."

Tenzing, who staged a similar protest atop Hotel Oberoi in Mumbai during the visit of Wen's predecessor, Zhu Rongji, was arrested after some wrestling with five policemen.

The city police and IISc director Goverdhan Mehta blamed each other for the security lapse.

"This is unfortunate. I got to know about it (the Tibetan incident) after the meeting. It is the duty of the city police to sanitise the venue before VIPs' arrival," Mehta said.

Two additional commissioners of police, who saw the protest, said IISc had assured a thorough security check ahead of the meeting.

"We have just taken him into custody. We will look into the matter," Bangalore police commissioner Siddaiah Mariswamy said.

Chief minister Dharam Singh later ordered a probe into the security breach.

Yesterday, the city police detained two leaders of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress in a bid to thwart mobilisation of refugees for a protest rally during Wen's visit.

Unfortunate: Delhi

India has described as "unfortunate" the protest by a Tibetan youth at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore when Wen was interacting with scientists.

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