Police arrest Tibetans trying to go to China

SRINAGAR (Reuters) - Indian police arrested at least 17 Tibetan exiles on Saturday who were trying to cross from India's remote Ladakh region into China to show solidarity with protesters in Tibet, police said.

Ladakh, a cold desert region in Indian Kashmir near the border with China, has some 15,000 Tibetans, most of whom fled Tibet after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959.

"Seventeen Tibetan refugees were arrested for violation of Inner Line Permit," a police statement said, referring to a restricted checkpoint close to the Chinese border.

A police official who did not wish to be identified told Reuters the Tibetans were headed for the border.

India has seen a wave of anti-China protests, particularly in the northern hills of Dharamsala, the seat of the Dalai Lama's government in exile. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

Last month thousands of monks marched in Ladakh's Leh town to show solidarity with Tibetan protesters, but this was the first time people from the community were arrested in the Buddhist-dominated region.

India had stopped some 100 Tibetan protesters last month when they tried to head to the Chinese border to press claims for independence and protest the Beijing Olympics.