Olympic torch will be given tough security

New Delhi: India will impose intense security on its capital when the Olympic torch passes through later this month, police said as concerns mounted over anti-China protests by Tibetans.

The Indian Olympic Association has invited several of the country's top athletes and actors to carry the torch in the April 17 flame run through New Delhi.

All participants will be issued special identification cards and spectators will be kept at a "proper distance and frisked," Rajan Bhagat, the main spokesman for the Delhi Police, said.

There are concerns that Tibetan exiles in India may use the occasion to highlight their opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet and to protest Beijing's crackdown on anti-China rallies in the region.

"The final details are being worked out but I can tell you that we will be making elaborate security arrangements," Bhagat said.

Shorter route

"The route has been shortened and the details of it will be made known on a later date," Indian Olympic Association Secretary General Randhir Singh said.

Officials at the association were not immediately available to confirm Singh's comments.

Tibetan groups in India have held mostly peaceful demonstrations throughout the country since protests began in Tibet's capital Lhasa on March 10, the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule nearly half a century ago. More than a dozen Tibetan exiles scaled the walls of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on March 21.