Police in Himachal Pradesh have arrested eight ethnic Chinese men with Chinese passports.
They were arrested from a house-cum monastery in Chauntra at the edge of the scenic Kangra valley some 250 km from here late Tuesday.
“All the eight men have Chinese passports with short tourist visas . We have arrested them under section 14 as they had not registered with the local police,” said Abhishek Dular , Mandi district police chief told Business Standatd. “They are being questioned and are currently in police custody in Jogindernagar.”
“They are of different age groups in their 20s, 30s and 40s ,” said Dular.
“Under section 7 even if you have a tourist visa you need to inform the police . And when you move to a new location you need to inform the police as,” Dular clarified.
“We have also booked the caretaker of the house in which these men were staying,” he added. The Police have also seized from them Indian currencies worth Rs 30 lakh, $ 3,000 and some other foreign currencies . Mobile phones , some with Chinese SIM cards have also been found. Police is tight lipped at this stage about whether they are Chinese spies. The Police in Himachal Pradesh is taking this incident seriously after percieved threats to life of the Dalai Lama who lives in Dharmasala, close to where the men have been arrested.
“The arrested Chinese nationals have apparantly entered India by the Taiwan route . We are trying to engage Chinese interpretors to further question the Chinese men,” said Himachal Chief Minister PK Dhumal. “I have been cautioning the Central government repeatedly about Chinese activities along the Himachal Pradesh border . Of late there have been air space violations by China as well.”
“In view of recent threats to the life of the Dalai Lama the Centre should constitute a special cell to keep an eye on the activities of Chinese nations slipping into India in disguise as Tibetans,” he said .