Tibetan activists plan to resume protest rallies in front of the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu on Friday even though Nepal’s new Maoist-led government is expected to treat demonstrators harshly.

Nepal’s Tibetan residents, who number more than 15,000 and form the world’s largest population of Tibetan refugees after that of India, protested regularly at the embassy during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, in spite of harsh police beatings and mass arrests.