Beijing:
An Indian national, arrested in China for suspected terror links, was released and deported back to the country.
Rajiv Mohan Kulshrestha, 46, was among a group of 20 foreign tourists, mostly elderly, who were detained in northern China on July 10 for suspected links to "a terror group", according to reports by Britain's Foreign Office and a South African charity. Sources say Mr Kulshrestha, stated to be a businessman from Delhi, was released last night.
The Indian embassy in Beijing had been negotiating for his release over the last few days.
China had deported 11 others in the group earlier this week. The rest - Mr Kulshrestha along with five South Africans and three Britons - were held without charge at a detention center in Inner Mongolia, the South African charity, Gift of the Givers Foundation, had said.
Chinese authorities said that some of those arrested had been watching "terror" videos, linked to a banned group, at their hotel, the charity had added in its statement.
A British-based spokesman for two of the tourists, 74-year-old Hoosain Jacobs, a well-known anti-apartheid activist, and his wife Tahira, 68, said a video on Genghis Khan, a 13th-century Mongolian warlord, might have led to an "unfortunate misunderstanding".
"They watched a documentary on Genghis Khan to further their understanding of the region they were in at the time, and this may have mistakenly been deemed as 'propaganda' material," the spokesman said in a statement. The group had visited the Genghis Khan Mausoleum the day before they were held, he said.
Chinese authorities have not specified what crime the tourists were suspected of committing, saying only they were suspected of breaking the law.
The group was on a 47-day tour of the country when they were detained at an airport in the Inner Mongolian city of Erdos. Their tour operator realised something had gone "horribly wrong" on Sunday, two days later, the foundation said, when he hadn't heard from them.
Nelson Kgwete, a spokesman for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said the South Africans would leave China on Saturday. He said the Chinese government had never indicated why the group was detained.
A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in a statement that those held were in good health.