Raghunath relates harrowing experience

New Delhi: Mr Krishnan Raghunath, Second Secretary in the Indian Embassy in Peking till he was expelled from China, told a crowded Press Conference here today that at several halting points during his journey from Peking to Hongkong, he was forced to “bow my head in order to admit my ‘crimes’ to the masses.”

Mr. Raghunath, who was giving a detailed account of the harrowing experiences he underwent at Chinese hands, said that at Canton an angry mob threatened to smash his head with a crowbar which was lying in the truck in which he was being taken to a hotel. “Throughout the journey, the emphasis was on humiliation and other pressures,” he said. Mr. Raghunath said the Public Security officials compromised with the demands of the crowd and “failed to effectively protect my person.”

In reply to a correspondent’s question on the possible motive for Peking’s action, Mr. Raghunath said conditions in China in the last 10 months were “so badly disorganised and chaotic that it was difficult to discern the Chinese designs.”

Mr. Raghunath said that, at Canton, the masses were worked up to such an extent that they appeared frustrated when they could not subject him to “severe punishment for my crimes before throwing me out of China”. They “felt cheated” of an opportunity of showing the “Chinese might”.