Itanagar, July 14: Two Chinese nationals who had been captured by Indian security forces after they illegally crossed over to Arunachal Pradesh last month have been released.

The two men of Tibetan ethnicity were from Lhasa and had crossed the China-India border near the Monigong administrative circle in West Siang district after trekking for 21 days, including seven days on foot, a source said. Monigong is about 200km from the district headquarters of Aalo.

Sources said the two began their long journey sometime in the month of May. They were caught by security forces on June 1, well inside Indian territory, and detained at the Tadadege border outpost for more than a month.

Tadadege is the last Indian village along the international boundary in the Monigong area that is home to the Ramo, Bokar and Pai-Libo sub-tribes of the Adi community. Several members of the tribes also live across the border on the Chinese side and barter trade between people on both sides was a common practice until the border was closed after the China-India War of 1962.

Interrogation of the two captured foreigners revealed that they had made the decision to cross over after they were told by people in Tibet that a large number of Tibetan refugees lived in India and that Arunachal Pradesh was a particularly good place for Tibetans because of a relatively large Buddhist population.

The duo had also been informed about the 14th Dalai Lama's scheduled visit to Tawang in October this year and were hoping to see him. His visit, however, was cancelled last month.

An Apple iPad, mobile phone along with copies of maps of the area were recovered from them, which were sent for forensic tests in New Delhi. The source said the two were sent back through the same route early this week after official procedures were completed since the tests did not reveal anything suspicious.

The state shares a 1,126km long border with China, which claims most of the state as its own under the name of South Tibet.