Tibetans scuffle with Nepal police, 113 detained

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepali police scuffled with Tibetan protesters on Sunday and took at least 113 demonstrators into custody in a continued crackdown on pro-Tibet rallies in the capital.

Kathmandu, studded with Hindu and Buddhist temples, has seen almost daily protests by exiled Tibetans since a deadly riot broke out in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on March 14 followed by demonstrations in other Tibetan areas of China.

Many Tibetans are furious over the crackdown against protesters in Tibet and resent China's decades-old rule of the Himalayan region.

The Lhasa riot broke out after days of protests centered on the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

On Sunday, about 200 protesters, including monks and nuns, emerged from a narrow lane outside a Chinese consulate office in Kathmandu, shouting "we want free Tibet" slogans.

Police chased them, grabbed them by their robes and hauled them into waiting vans and trucks.

"Stop, please, please," some crimson robed-monks said to police, asking not to be arrested.

At least two monks were seen carrying protesters on their backs after the clash, some were weeping.

Landlocked and impoverished Nepal considers Tibet as part of China, a key donor to economic development projects, and has banned anti-China protests.

Yet regular protests have been organized in Kathmandu by more than 20,000 Tibetans who have been living in Nepal since fleeing their homeland in 1959.

Hundreds of pro-Tibet protesters have been arrested and later freed.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Bappa Majumdar and David Fogarty)