Amid row, Dalai Lama reaches Tawang after 7hr road journey
GUWAHATI: Tibetan spiritual leader The Dalai Lama on Friday reached Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang, which China claimsas its own and wants desperately enough to offer a swap forAksai Chin.
The exiled leader reached Tawang after a seven-hour road journey from Dirang in Arunachal.
He was to have reached Tawang by chopper from Guwahati on April 4, but bad weather forced him to take the 550km road from Guwahati.
The Dalai Lama’s first stop was Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district, from where the Chinese soldiers had retreated after the 1962 war.
After a day of delivering sermon in Bomdila, he spent two days at Dirang, about 40km north, where he consecrated the Thupsing Dhargye monastery.
“His Holiness left Dirang in the morning (Friday),” said an officer of West Kameng district administration.
State police and paramilitary personnel kept a vigil along the 140-km stretch between Dirang and Tawang, particularly at Sela (13,700 feet) en route.
A 30-km stretch at Sela is partly snow-covered, wet because of melting snow, muddy and slippery.
A series of religious discourses by the Dalai Lama will begin on Saturday and he will stay at the Tawang monastery for four nights before leaving on April 11.
Security has been strengthened around the monastery. NEW DELHI: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrived here on Friday on a four-day visit during which she will hold wideranging talks with PM Narendra Modi.
Setting aside protocol, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday went to the airport to receive Hasina, the PM’s sudden plan left his security and Delhi police officers baffled.
The PMO had not informed the Delhi police, as they usually do every morning or hours before his visit to any place in the city. The police in turn stop vehicle movement on the route that the PM takes across the city. Delhi police officers stop movement of vehicles and impose total restriction.
Armed security personnel stand guard and do not allow even pedestrians on the ‘VVIP route.’
For the initial part of his ride to the airport, sources said Modi travelled without any traffic restriction.
“The moment police came to know about the PM riding without restriction, the message was flashed across the wireless and local police and traffic staff along the route ensured that the PM’s ride was smooth,” said an officer.
An officer said that though Modi’s decision to go to the airport surprised many, it wasn’t difficult to manage security because armed police personnel were on standby on the route because they had reported for duty, to stand guard while Hasina landed at the airport .
COMPREHENSIVE TALKS The two sides will sign at least 25 pacts in various key sectors including civil nuclear cooperation and defence but any agreement on the Teesta water sharing is unlikely to be inked.
Modi and Hasina, who is staying at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, will hold comprehensive discussions on Saturday. India is also set to announce a line of credit of $500 million to Bangladesh for military supplies.
The two sides are looking at the inking of a framework agreement on civil nuclear energy which will provide for setting up of nuclear reactors in Bangladesh by India.