Safe Holi for foreign tourists in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer

Jaipur, March 5 (IANS) Police in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer have decided to take action against those found bothering, troubling or disturbing a women foreign tourist in the name of Holi.

"Jaisalmer is a tourist city and a large number of both domestic and foreign tourists visit the city during Holi. In the past, it was seen that miscreants, on the pretext of Holi, put colour forcibly or trouble the tourists by touching them. To see that it does not happen this time, we have decided to put police mobile vans near tourist spots and markets," a police official told IANS on Thursday.

Policemen in plain clothes will be deputed in some areas. "We have asked them to catch any person found putting colour on tourists against their wishes," he said.

Rajasthan on an average receives over 12 lakh foreign and 2.5 crore domestic tourists every year. In the last few years, the desert state has been rocked by incidents of rape and molestation of foreign tourists.

In February, a Japanese woman tourist was raped near Jaipur, while two French women tourists were molested in Jodhpur.

Karan Singh, a tour operator, said they were "concerned" over such incidents. "We think that it is a right step taken by police in Jaisalmer," he said.