Mumbai: About 200 Tibetans today began a day-long hunger strike at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai to protest Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India.

Hu arrived in the city last evening and is scheduled to attend a few official functions before leaving for Islamabad this afternoon.

"Hu Jintao, as head of Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1989, imposed martial law in Tibet and ordered violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, killing thousands of innocent Tibetans", Phuntok, a member of the agitating group, told sources.

The demonstration has been organised by the 'Tibetan Sweater Sellers' Union of Maharashtra and Gujarat' and 'Friends of Tibet' organisations.

The protestors shouted slogans like 'Free Tibet' and 'End oppression in Tibet'.

"Hu is world's leading autocrat and leads the regime responsible for genocide of over 75 million people", he claimed.

"Since China's illegal and forcible occupation of Tibet in 1950, over 1.3 million Tibetans have been massacred," Phuntok said.

"The cold-blooded killing of Tibetan refugees fleeing Tibet at Nangpa Pass on the Tibet-Nepal border by Chinese security forces on September 30, is an indicator of the appalling human rights situation in Tibet", he said.