New Delhi: Anant Mittal, an Indian YouTuber, was illegally detained by Chinese authorities for 15 hours at an airport in that country for saying that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India.
A visibly shaken Mittal, a travel vlogger who runs the channel On Road Indian, has claimed that he was allowed to drink water only once during that detention period and given nothing to eat. This highlights China’s total disregard for human rights.
Mittal has uploaded a video, apparently taken during his flight back to India, where he describes his horrendous experience and says how he has been without food for 28 hours.
It all began at the immigration counter, with officers asking him routine questions. Everything seemed normal at first till the man at the counter pasted a sticker on his passport and summoned a senior officer to escort him to the detention area, as reported by News18.
There was a Korean national and 8-10 Bangladeshis in the room where he was taken.
After two hours, officers took him to another room for questioning. They asked about his travel purpose, where he came from and what he intended to buy.
They then opened his bags and took away all electronic gadgets, including phones and cameras. They just left his iPhone behind. Mittal managed to grab some footage of the detention area with the device, but was unable to contact the Indian Embassy or his friend
s.
The officers returned after a while and told him that he is a YouTuber. That is when Mittal realised that it was his stand on Arunachal Pradesh that had sparked that reaction. He had made the remarks while in China and the authorities were making him pay for that.
A video captured on his iPad shows the vlogger ask for food, but it is denied by the guard. He even offers to pay.
“The Bangladeshis were given food, but there was nothing for me,” Mittal has claimed.
He was not told why he was detained and spent the next several hours in considerable tension. Finally, an official told him that the process is over and he can fly back to India. This happened 15 hours after he was detained.
In his video sent later, Mittal saya that he is a common man and has nothing to do with any border dispute between the two nations. He said that he has friends in China, who helped in his start-up. He also admits that it may not have been a right decision to speak on Arunachal Pradesh while travelling in China.
His post had been in support of Pem Wang Thongdok, an Indian woman living in UK, who had alleged that she was detained for over 18 hours at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in November. Chinese authorities reportedly told her that her Indian passport was “invalid” because she was born in Arunachal Pradesh.
The tension is rooted in the long-standing border dispute between India and China. While India considers Arunachal Pradesh an “integral and inalienable” part of the country and the residents of the state consider themselves Indian, China claims it as “South Tibet”.
This is a row that has now turned messy with China objecting to Indian leaders visiting the region. In an attempt to scare people, China has resorted to stapling visas issued to residents.