By Xinhua
Beijing : China Thursday said it was confident of holding the Olympic Games successfully despite disruptive protests as a number of countries voiced their opposition to politicising the world sports meet.
With support from people around the world, China is capable of tackling disruptive efforts and host successful Olympic Games, President Hu Jintao told visiting Sri Lankan President Mahendra Rajapakse Thursday.
Any attempt to undermine the games was sure to fail, Rajapakse said, adding Sri Lanka wholeheartedly wished the success of the Beijing Olympics.
The ongoing Olympic torch relay across the globe was disrupted by protests by anti-China demonstrators and rights activists in London, Paris and San Francisco.
However, several nations Thursday voiced their support to the Beijing Olympics.
The Afghan foreign ministry said the games represent peace and reconciliation, and that it should not be used for furthering political objectives.
“We wish success for the Beijing Olympic Games and it must not be used for achieving political ends,” ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said during his weekly press briefing.
In Islamabad, where the Olympic flame is scheduled to arrive April 16, the government said it did not support any attempt to politicise the event keenly awaited by sports lovers.
Meanwhile, the police in Beijing Thursday stepped up security measures for the upcoming event pressing into service sniffer dogs on trains to check baggage at two of the capital’s rail terminals to detect explosives and suspicious substances.
Various other security gadgets like portable and fixed detectors and security barricades have been put into use at the two terminals.
Sniffer dogs have been deployed in the city’s subways since January.
The ministry of public security Thursday said police busted two terrorist groups in the Uygur region of Xinjiang province in the northwest.
The terrorists, who numbered 45 in all, were suspected of preparing for terrorist attacks during the Olympic Games, a ministry release said.
Some 18 explosive devices, four kilogram of explosives, seven detonators, 100 kg of raw materials for making explosives, and “a mass of text materials on starting a holy war”, had been seized during raid on their hideouts, the police said.
DPA added from Tokyo: The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, appealed Thursday for non-violent protests during the Olympic torch relay.
While he condemned disturbances that have marred recent legs of the relay, the Dalai Lama said he and no one else has “the right to say, ‘Shut up'”.
“It is the freedom of speech”, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said at a press conference near Narita International Airport outside Tokyo.
The Dalai Lama was transiting through Japan on his way to the US for what was called a two-week non-political visit