A Tibetan monk stands outside a temple near Mount Kailash in Ngari, Tibet Autonomous Region September 3, 2011. (Reuters)
China has turned the Tibetan Plateau into a "vast military zone" deploying a large number of troops with most of them along the Indian sub-continent, claimed the Core Group for Tibetan Cause (CGTC).
"China has turned the once peaceful and buffer state between India and China into a vast military zone. The militarisation of the Tibetan Plateau profoundly affects the geopolitical balance of the region, which causes serious international tension, particularly in the Indian sub-continent," claimed the Core Group for Tibetan Cause, an apex coordinating body of Tibet Support Groups all over India.
In a publication distributed in the 5th All India Tibet Support Groups Conference that concluded here yesterday, it claimed that as part of its militarisation, China has "17 secret radar stations, 14 military airfields, eight missile bases with eight Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and 20 intermediate range missiles".
Referring to the China's 1,118-km railway project in Tibet connecting Gormo to Lhasa, it claimed that "China's determination to construct the rail link to Lhasa is of political and military need".
The CGTC held its 5th All India Tibet Support Groups conference here on November 2 and 3 which was addressed by Tibetan Government in-exile in India Prime Minister Dr Lobsang Sangay and Information and International Relations Minister Dicki Chhoyang.