DHAKA: Bangladeshi police in the capital Dhaka closed a photography exhibition on

Tibet following complaints from Chinese diplomats, the government and organisers said today.

Shahidul Alam, who set up the exhibition “Into Exile, Tibet 1949-2009,” said the gallery doors had been locked by police officers.

“We were scheduled to open on Sunday, but the police didn’t allow us inside,” he told AFP. “Chinese embassy officials had earlier come to meet me and requested (that we) cancel the show.”

Mohammad Imran, spokesman for the Bangladesh foreign ministry, told AFP that “the Chinese ambassador called on our foreign secretary and formally expressed concern about the exhibition on Tibet.”

Jointly organised with the Bangladesh branch of Students for a Free Tibet, the

exhibition was to display pictures of Tibetans who had fled their homeland because of Chinese rule.

Police chief Shah Alam told AFP they stopped the show on the “orders from higher authorities.”

The Chinese embassy in Dhaka could not be contacted for comment though a spokesman told a local newspaper that it had lodged a formal protest with the Bangladeshi government — a staunch ally of China.