TWO MEN have been arrested following the high alert that was sounded in Bodh Gaya, Bihar after Mumbai police had received intelligence inputs that the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama could be harmed by Chinese nationals. Arrested youth were reportedly trying to get close to Dalai Lama with fake security passes.

According to a Bodh Gaya police official, the arrested men allegedly have links with some disruptive groups and are accused in the murder of two people at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, the place from where the Tibetan government in exile is being run. Police has also said that one of the arrested men belongs to Dharamsala.

The men in the garb of lamas were arrested on Saturday evening at the Buddhist pilgrim town of Bodh Gaya in Southern Bihar, where the Dalai Lama is attending a religious function, during the 10-day Kalchakra prayers, the biggest annual gathering of Buddhist Mahayana sect. The ritual, which began on January 1, is being attended by more than 300,000 Buddhists and his followers from across the globe. "We have arrested two youths while they were trying to reach near the Dalai Lama but can't tell what their motive was until their interrogation is done," Satyabir Singh, Gaya city's superintendent of police, told this correspondent .

He added that the police were facing a language problem in properly communicating with the arrested men since they are conversant neither in Hindi nor English. Reports said the Tibetan security personnel deployed for the security of the Dalai Lama are assisting the local police in interrogating the youths. Later, based on the information provided by the arrested men, the police raided a cyber café located near the mythological Mahabodhi Temple and seized a computer. It was at this cyber café, police believe, that the arrested men scanned two passes saved in a pen-drive and got fake passes prepared. The secretary for the Department of Security under the Dharamshala based Central Tibetan Administration had earlier told reporters that a large number of Chinese spies could be attending the ongoing Kalachakra teachings by the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya.

“In information that we have received, we suspect there might be 1000 to 1500 spies attending the Kalachakra teachings sent by China to study and report on the Tibetan leaders and their activities in the exile community,” Secretary Ngodup Dorjee had told reporters.