India denies Chinese taking away maps
PTI
NEW DELHI/BEIJING, AUG 29
India on Sunday sought to play down an incident in which some Chinese entered into the Indian pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai and took away brochures that contained map of India.
An External Affairs Ministry spokesman in New Delhi said, “there is no factual basis to this report” which stated that officers of China’s Public Security Bureau (PSB) marched into the Indian pavilion, taking away the maps showing Arunachal Pradesh as part of India, a fact that Beijing disputes.
“There has been no interference in the functioning of our pavilion at Shanghai Expo,” the spokesman said.
Other sources, however said that two or three Chinese had walked into the India pavilion on July 13 and asked for the Indian maps and took them away.
These sources described the Chinese variously as “students or visitors or possibly officers.”
An official of the Commerce Ministry which oversees the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), responsible for organising Shanghai fair said on condition of anonymity that a few Chinese had indeed come to the Indian pavilion and taken away the papers.
