(dpa) - A group of more than 30 Tibetan women were detained by the police on Wednesday as they tried to storm the Chinese embassy in the Indian capital, news reports said.
The women are members of the Tibetan Youth Congress, an organization of young Tibetans founded in 1970 with the aim of preserving Tibetan culture and fighting for the independence of their homeland. It is headquartered in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala.
The Tibetan protestors gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Delhi's diplomatic enclave and started shouting slogans like: "Free Tibet" and "No Olympics in China," IANS news agency reported.
Organizers of the protest said they were commemorating the 49th Tibetan Women's Uprising Day.
"There was heavy police force outside the Chinese embassy and they took our women to police station by calling our demonstration illegal. Now we are going to launch a hunger strike, both in the police station and Tihar jail," Kunchok Yanthcl, an activist, said.
The police said they had detained 36 women for demonstrating in a restricted area and for trying to barge into the Chinese embassy. They are being questioned, senior Delhi police official Anand Mohan was quoted as saying.
Yanthcl said the protest was one of a series which were planned in India against the holding of the Olympic Games in Beijing and in support of the march of exiled Tibetans to their homeland that was launched from Dharamshala on Monday.
The marchers have been given restraining orders by police in the northern Indian hill state of Himachal Pradesh where Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile is located. The police have asked the activists not to move beyond a designated area.