New Delhi, April 10: The Centre has refused a Chinese request to ban protests anywhere in Delhi on April 17, the day of the Olympic torch relay here, officials said.

The request was made by a four-member team of Chinese intelligence officials, who met the director of the Intelligence Bureau today.

“The protests will not be banned,” a senior home ministry official later told The Telegraph on a day hundreds of Tibetans gathered in the capital from across India.

A government source said the Indian security establishment was wary of the Chinese intelligence officials in India, suspecting they might be trying to secure information on the Tibetan refugees in India.

Delhi, whom many have criticised for being too eager to please Beijing over the torch relay and too restrained in its comments on the recent Tibetan crisis, had earlier turned down a request for Chinese air surveillance of the torch.

But even the Tibetans concede that protests are unlikely along the 3km relay route on Rajpath where the government will be upgrading security to Republic Day level.

They, however, are pinning their hopes on the element of surprise. One leader hinted that some of the celebrities participating in the relay may have been tapped to take a pro-Tibet stance during the showpiece event.

In France, an athlete had run part of the relay with a bandanna bearing the Tibetan national flag until Chinese security officials tore it off his head — an act that led to criticism of Chinese “brash behaviour” in the French media.

Pro-Tibet protesters’ success in disrupting the torch run in Paris and London, however, has made governments extra cautious.

In San Francisco, the only US venue of the relay, officials yesterday secretly re-routed the run. The authorities cloaked the runners in a blanket of security and then whisked the torch to the airport. (See Foreign)

In Delhi, “the security around the torch is going to be so tight that we may as well hold our protests at Jantar Mantar and elsewhere”, said Palkyi, a Tibetan protester.

He and his comrades, many with their heads partly shaven to form the words “save Tibet”, gathered at Jantar Mantar today. Over 200 marchers, including 16 Dutch, French and Australians, reached Delhi this morning having walked all the way from Dharamsala.

Their arrival coincided with an address by Samdhong Rinpoche, the prime minister in the Tibetan government-in-exile. He repeated the Dalai Lama’s call for restraint but added that democratic forms of protests were permissible.

The protesters want the Olympic torch to stop short of Tibet. “It should neither go to Lhasa nor to the Tibetan face of the Everest where they are planning to take it,” said K. Dorjee, who arrived from Dharamsala yesterday. The torch is expected to reach Lhasa on June 20.

Home secretary Madhukar Gupta today met foreign ministry officials to discuss security for the relay.