Beijing: A day after Beijing claimed that the three Chinese citizens, who were arrested near the Indo-Nepal border without valid travel documents recently, were not spies but "tourists", reports claimed on Friday that the Government of India has decided to deport them back to their country of origin.
China termed the report (of them being spies as inaccurate) and stressed that they had entered the Indian territory by "mistake". The three, including a woman, were arrested on January 17 by Shashastra Seema Bal (SSB) while they were taking pictures of vital installations near Rupedhiya border in Uttar Pradesh.
Later, they were identified as Liao Xing, Yu Dangli and Yang Liu.
"In recent days three Chinese tourists crossed over to Indian border by mistake along the India-Nepal border. They were detained by Indian police," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong said yesterday.
They were booked for illegally entering country and under the Passport Act. Importantly, an Indian PAN card, two mobiles and a camera were recovered from them.
