62 people arrested arbitrarily, during Xi’s visit, released

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s security forces had arbitrarily detained at least 62 people during the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.

However, all of them have been released after the necessary investigation.

“All those arrested have been released after necessary investigation,” said police spokesperson DIG Bishwo Pokhrel.

There has been a trend of apprehending people, especially Tibetans in the name of ‘questioning’ during high-level visits by Chinese authorities.

However, this time around, the police appeared to have increased their arrest ambit by taking into custody Nepalis national resembling Tibetans.

Police arrested a seventh-grader wearing a t-shirt with the mark ‘Free Tibet’ while another 65-year-old woman was arrested simply because she was holding a bag that had Tibetan lettering.

“The police should refrain from making arbitrary arrests without any concrete evidence,” senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi told Khabarhub adding that such arrests are violations of the existing laws.

Likewise, senior human rights defender Charan Prasai is of the view that no such arrests should be made during high-level visits. “Arbitrary arrests on the basis of suspicion cannot be acceptable,” he said adding, “Such arrests are against constitutional right and freedom.”

Likewise, in May this year, three Nepali journalists from the National News Agency (RSS) were ‘questioned’ by the Ministry of Communication over a report on Dalai Lama’s health they translated and disseminated.

Similarly, Nepal’s Samajbadi Party suspended its lawmaker Pradip Yadav for six months when he attended a program on Free Tibet in Europe.

Likewise, five people who protested in front of the Chinese Huawei company office for its alleged involvement in the hacking of around 200 government websites, were arrested in May this year.

On September 9 this year, police arrested around 15 protesters, including 10 women’s rights activists, demonstrating near the Chinese Embassy against trafficking of Nepali women by Chinese nationals during the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Nepal on September 8-10.