(TibetanReview.net, Dec29’22) – Police in Gaya district of the Indian state of Bihar are reported to have issued a security alert on Dec 22 and to be looking for a Chinese woman seen as posing a threat to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. They have released a sketch of the woman along with her passport and visa numbers.
The reports do not mention any specific allegation against the woman, who has been named as Song Xiaolan. The police have been cited as seeking to question her on the basis of inputs they have been receiving about her over the past two years or so.
Meanwhile, security has been beefed up around the Mahabodhi Temple Complex, and the screening of devotees has been intensified. a lookout operation is underway, reported the ANI news agency Dec 29.
“Searches are underway. Suspicion of being a Chinese spy can’t be ruled out,” the report quoted the Gaya district police chief as saying.
According to the ANI report, the Chinese woman had been living in different parts of the country including Bodh Gaya for more than one year. However, no record is said to exist in the foreign section about the stay of the Chinese woman.
The Dalai Lama arrived in Bodh Gaya on Dec 22, resuming his annual trip to the town after nearly two years of pandemic-induced travel restrictions. He is giving religious discourses at the Kalchakra Maidan over Dec 29-31, which will be followed by a long-life offering ceremony.