(TibetanReview.net, Oct06’19) – Police in Viluppuram district of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu have taken into preventive custody on Oct 5 Tibetan writer and independence activist Mr Tenzin Tsundue ahead of an informal summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He is expected to remain in custody until the two leaders concluded their Oct 11-13 meeting which will take place in the coastal town of Mamallapuram, located 125 km away from where Tsundue was held.
Tsundue was stated to be on a tour to speak at universities across India. He had a poetry reading session in Bangalore and visited a university in Banaras before traveling to Tamil Nadu.
Tsundue was previously arrested in Jan 2002 when he hung a ‘Free Tibet’ banner by climbing the scaffolding outside the 14th floor of the Oberoi hotel in Bombay where Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji was addressing a business meeting. Later in 2005, he was held during the visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Bangalore after he unfurled a red banner that read “Free Tibet” from a 200-foot-high tower at the Indian Institute of Science. In Nov 2006, during the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao, a travel ban was imposed on him, restricting him to Dharamsala.
He was also held in Sep 2014 by Indian security forces from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, ahead of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Ashram is well known as the place from where Mahatma Gandhi started his historic and revolutionary Salt March of 1930.
Tsundue is an awarding winning writer and poet and has taken part in literary festivals and conferences internationally.
