The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Dehra

Indian police Thursday arrested a group of 100 Tibetan exiles trying to walk to their homeland as part of a major protest ahead of the Beijing Olympics, although the demonstrators vowed their march would go on. The marchers were rounded up as they approached the border of Himachal Pradesh state's Kangra region in defiance of a restraining order banning them from heading further north into the Himalayas and towards Chinese-governed Tibet. "We have arrested 100 people," police official Atul Fulzele told AFP, adding that five women were among those arrested. The march began on Monday in Dharamshala in the northern Indian district of Kangra, home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, and had reached Dehra, around 56 kilometres (35 miles) away, when the arrests took place. Tibetan activists, who have vowed to step up their protests in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, said they were saddened by the Indian government's position but insisted the arrests were only a temporary setback. "We appeal to the government of India not to appease China by restraining us," said Sonam Dorje, spokesman of Tibetan Youth Congress, one of five pro-independence groups sponsoring the trek to Tibet.