Why did China detain an Indian tourist for seven days?

On Saturday, Indian tourist Rajiv Mohan Kulshrestha left Beijing for New Delhi after a harrowing week in China. During a visit to China as part of a tour group, Kulshrestha and 19 others were detained by police in Ordos, a city in the northern Inner Mongolia region of China, on July 10.

Even seven days on, much is still unclear about why they were detained. On July 15, Chinese officials said the tourists had been involved in an unspecified "criminal activity" and had violated Chinese laws.

A South African NGO that had been in touch with the tourists - ten of them were South African nationals and nine were British - said the travellers had been told by authorities they had broken laws by watching "propaganda videos" linked to terrorism. A local official in Ordos claimed the videos were linked to "violence and terrorism".

Meanwhile, a British spokesman for two of the travellers has suggested that the group was not watching a terror video, but an apparently harmless documentary about the famed Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan.

There are still more questions than answers about the case. Why did China first release 11 travellers - six British and five South Africans - while the nine others, including Kulshrestha, were held until the end of the week? The Indian Embassy also appears to have been the last to secure access to its detained citizen. Was the Indian Embassy notified later than the British and South African missions? Diplomats from those two countries had already been able to secure the release of 11 of the travellers at a time when India had not even been granted consular access. By the end of Friday, all 20 had been released.

The Chinese authorities initially communicated that some of the travellers had broken Article 120 of the Chinese Criminal Law, which refers to anyone who participates or organises a terrorist organisation and carries heavy jail terms ranging from three to ten years. Until now, Chinese officials have not yet told their Indian counterparts what the evidence was for such a grave accusation.

Have those charges been dropped? All that Indian officials would say is they will continue to discuss the case with China in coming days, leaving open the possibility that it is not yet settled fully. In past cases where Chinese security authorities have detained or charged foreigners, they have not easily agreed to a U-turn, especially when the case has, as in this instance, received wide media attention. One Chinese Party-run newspaper even quoted a terrorism expert who strongly justified the detentions.

With both China and India keeping mum about the details of the case, the circumstances of the detentions are still murky. Which is why until the events of the past week are cleared up, India should forcefully press the Chinese authorities to present clear evidence behind what prompted the week-long detention of an Indian national. Were any Chinese laws broken by the travellers? Or did Chinese law enforcement authorities act in haste? Those questions need to be answered - and transparently - to ensure, at the very least, such episodes do not recur.