Kathmandu: Police in Nepal have detained 122 Chinese men and women in its biggest crackdown on crime by foreigners entering the country on tourist visas, officials said Tuesday.
Chief of police Uttam Subedi said in the national capital that the suspects were rounded up in raids Monday following information that they were engaged in suspicious activities.
The Chinese are suspected of cyber crime and hacking into bank cash machines Subedi said, adding that they were being held in different police stations and their passports and laptops had been seized. “This is the first time that so many foreigners have been detained for suspected criminal activities,” informed Subedi.
Another senior police officer, Hobindra Bogati, said the Chinese embassy knew about the raids and had supported the detentions.
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Chinese and Nepali police had cooperated on the case and China was willing to increase law-enforcement cooperation with its neighbour.
Chinese people are regularly detained in Asian countries on suspicion of involvement in various illegal activities, often involving fraud back in China.
Last week, authorities in the Philippines arrested 342 Chinese workers in a raid on an unlicensed gambling operation.
More than 134,000 Chinese tourists visited Nepal between January and October this year, up 9.2 per cent from the same period in 2018, according to Nepal Tourism Board data.
Agencies