BEIJING, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Two senior officials in restive Tibet have been dismissed, six months after violent riots swept the Himalayan region, the semi-official China News Service reported on Saturday.

Wang Binyi was removed on Friday as Tibet's police chief, while Qin Yizhi was stripped of his position as deputy governor of the region but kept his job as Communist party chief of Lhasa, the capital.

The news agency gave no reason for Friday's decision by the Tibet People's Congress, the regional rubber-stamp parliament.

It said Wang's and Qin's jobs would be carried out by Li Zhao. Official biographies say Li is a senior police official.

Anti-Chinese riots erupted in Lhasa on March 14, killing 21 people, and then spilled over into the rest of Tibet and neighbouring Chinese provinces with Tibetan populations.

China blames Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his supporters for instigating the riots. The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, has denied the allegations.

Protests against Chinese rule in Tibet subsequently dogged the international leg of the Olympic Torch relay.

Qin made headlines when the torch passed through Lhasa in June, saying the Communist party would "smash the scheming of the Dalai clique". (Reporting by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

AlertNet news is provided by