Olympic torch in Lhasa under tight security

OLYMPIC TORCH: Protests have followed the path of the torch around the world.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Television, for politicians with a vision

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• China to carry Olympic Games torch into Tibet
• Heights of adventure: Olympics torch reaches Mt Everest
• Tibetan protestors ask IOC to call off Olympic torch relay

Keywords: Tibet, Lhasa

New Delhi: The Olympic torch will pass through Tibet's capital Lhasa before strictly vetted crowds on Saturday.

The torch arrived on Saturday in a tense Tibet under tight security and surveillance.

Officials claim that pro-independence activists are trying to sabotage the relay. The Lhasa leg of the relay has been drastically shortened to around 1/3rd of its original length.

There will be 156 torchbearers with a police guard every 200 meters. Only a selected number of journalists have been allowed to Lhasa for the relay and officials will be accompanying them.

At the beginning of the ceremony at which the torch was lit, hundreds of onlookers stood for a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the tragic earthquake in China's Sichuan province last month.

The torch path through Tibet has been strongly criticised by exile Tibetan groups after Chinese government' reprisals and measures against demonstrations in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, earlier this year.

Protests have followed the path of the torch around the world, through Europe and the US and elsewhere. But the protests subsided after the massive quake, which brought a worldwide outpouring of help for Beijing in the recovery efforts.

The Olympic games will be held in Beijing in August.