(TibetanReview.net, Sep15’26) – All the activist of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), totalling around 70, have been released without criminal charges on Sep14, a day after the BRICS Summit in New Delhi ended and long after Chinese President Xi Jinping had flown back to Beijing.
After being held for 37 hours in Tihar Jail under preventive detention orders, Karma Dolma, Tenzin Nordon and Tenzin Tsephel were released, said SFT India on Istagram Sep 14. The trio had climbed poles to hang two protest banners and a Tibetan national flag in a tunnel area near the site of the BRICS Summit – the Bharat Mandapam in the Pragati Maidan complex – on Sep 11.
The group also said one SFT-Delhi member and one Tibetan journalist, who were detained separately, were also released after nearly two and a half days.
The group further said that, in addition, two SFT-India staff members were released on Sep 14 – one from police custody and SFT-India National Director Tenzin Passang from house arrest.
Also, all the 64 activists of the TYC who set off on a protest march from the ITO towards the venue of the BRICS Summit – located some 2km – away late in the evening of Sep 12 have been released on Sep 14.
The released Tibetans were given a rousing reception at the Samyeling Tibetan settlement located on the bank of Yamuna River in north Delhi.
News reports said Delhi Police detained the activists to maintain security during the VVIP summit.
The standard procedure for such preventative detentions during high-security high-profile visits involves holding the demonstrators temporarily before releasing them later the same day or shortly thereafter without filing formal criminal charges.