Demand to release Panchen Lama

Members of India's exiled Tibetan community have held protest marches and prayer meetings on the 12th birthday of the Panchen Lama, the second most senior figure in Tibetan Buddhism.

Waving flags and placards, Tibetan school-children marched to the parliament building in Delhi demanding that China release the boy, Gedhun Chohekyi Nyima.

He was recognised by Tibet's exiled ruler, the Dalai Lama in 1995, as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama.

But the boy was immediately taken into custody by the Chinese authorities and his whereabouts are now unknown.

China later recognised another Tibetan boy as Panchen Lama.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service