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Tibetan in India immolates in protest against Chinese rule

  (Associated Press)
New Delhi
Mon, March 21, 2016

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Tibetan in India immolates in protest against Chinese rule Exile Tibetans carry a portrait of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama during a candlelit vigil in solidarity with two Tibetans, who exiles claim have immolated themselves demanding freedom for Tibet, in Dharmsala, India on Wednesday. Exiles say that a 16-year-old school boy Dorje Tsering set himself on fire on Tuesday morning in Dehradun and is now being treated for severe burns in New Delhi. In another incident, Tibetan Buddhist monk Kalsang Wangdu self-immolated Monday afternoon near the Retsokha monastery in western Sichuan province's traditionally Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Kardze, Radio Free Asia reported. Writing on the pillar reads, "Remembrance pillair for Tibetan martyrs". (AP/Ashwini Bhatia)

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16-year-old Tibetan living in India has died in a New Delhi hospital three days after he set himself on fire in a protest against Chinese rule, a hospital official said Friday.

The Tibetan suffered 98 percent burn injuries and died late Thursday, said Pankaj, an official at New Delhi's government-run Safdarjung hospital. Pankaj uses one name.

The Tibetan set himself on fire on Monday in the northern Indian city of Dehradun and was brought to New Delhi for treatment.

It was the second such protest this year seen as an extreme expression of the anger and frustration felt by many Tibetans living under heavy-handed Chinese rule.

A Tibetan Buddhist monk self-immolated and died on Monday near the Retsokha monastery in western Sichuan province's traditional Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Kardze, Radio Free Asia reported. It said the monk called out for Tibetan independence while he burned, then died on the way to a hospital in the provincial capital of Chengdu.

Tibetan exile sources say at least 114 monks and laypeople have self-immolated over the past five years, with most of them dying. Radio Free Asia puts the number of self-immolations at 144 since 2009.

Tibetan monks and nuns are among the most active opponents of Chinese rule in the region and the strongest proponents of Tibet's independent identity, prompting the authorities to subject them to harsh and intrusive restrictions.

Beijing blames the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and others for inciting the immolations and says it has made vast investments to develop the region's economy and improve quality of life.

The Dalai Lama says he is against all violence. He fled Tibet to India in 1959 amid an abortive uprising against Chinese forces who had occupied the Himalayan region a decade earlier. He has been living in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala since then.

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