DEHRA, India - Police detained more than 100 Tibetan exiles as they marched to their homeland Thursday in protest of China's hosting of the Olympic Games, charging them with threatening the "peace and tranquility" of the region, officials said.
The protesters began a hunger strike within hours of being arrested, Tenzin Palkyi, a march coordinator, told The Associated Press.
The protesters shouted "Free Tibet!" and other slogans as they were being detained, but there was no violence, witnesses said. Senior police official Atul Fulzele said the protesters had been charged with threatening the region's "peace and tranquility."
But organizers vowed to continue the march.
"We will have to find a way," said Tenzin Palkyi, one of the march coordinators. "Our legal team will deal with the police."
Indian officials fear the march could embarrass Beijing and banned the exiles from leaving the Kangra district that surrounds the northern Indian city of Dharmsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
The march began Monday, the day Tibetans commemorated their 1959 uprising against China. Demonstrations took place around the world, including a protest by 300 Buddhist monks in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, one of the boldest public challenges to China's rule in recent years.
Shortly after the protesters set off early Thursday morning, police stopped the march in the town of Dehra, about 12 miles from the district boundary, and forced about 130 protesters into buses.
Police said the Thursday protesters would be taken to court within 24 hours. In the past, protesters charged with the offense have been released after formally pledging not to carry on demonstrating.
Nine foreigners who were marching with the Tibetans but were not arrested began a hunger strike of their own outside the building where the Tibetans were being held. The foreigners hail from the United States, Scotland, Germany, Poland and Australia.
Protests in Lhasa this week are believed to be the largest in the city since Beijing crushed a wave of pro-independence demonstrations in 1989.
Since then, China has pumped investment into the region, vilified the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and tried to weed out his supporters among the influential Buddhist clergy -- moves that have alienated some Tibetans.
The U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia and an overseas Tibetan Web site, phayul.com, reported as many as 71 people, mostly monks, were detained after those protests.
However, Tibet's chief administrator, Champa Phunstok, said authorities defused the incidents without arrests.
Asked about the protests, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, "Some ignorant monks in Lhasa abetted by a small handful of people did some illegal things that can challenge the social stability."
He said the monks were dealt with "according to the law," but gave no details.
Beijing maintains that Tibet is historically part of China, but many Tibetans argue the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries and accuse China of trying to crush Tibetan culture by swamping it with Han people, the majority Chinese ethnic group.
