No locals committed self-immolations in Tibet: Chinese official

Beijing: A senior Chinese official from Tibet today refuted reports that 120 self-immolations opposing the Chinese rule happened in the Himalayan region in recent times. No local residents, monks or nuns in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region have self-immolated, said Padma Choling, chairman of the Standing Committee of the regional People’s Congress, on the eve of the failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. [caption id=“attachment_1426191” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “None of the 46,000 monks and nuns in Tibet’s 1,700-plus monasteries, nor any local residents, have self-immolated since similar events were plotted by the Dalai Lama clique,” state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Choling as saying on the sidelines of the Chinese Legislature the National People s Congress (NPC) here. According to overseas Tibetan groups, over 120 self immolation cases took place in different parts of Tibetan region against Chinese rule and in support of the return of the Dalai Lama. Police in Tibet have prosecuted several people including Buddhist monks for instigating self immolations. Tibetan authorities insist that self-immolations were criminal acts premeditated, plotted and manipulated by overseas separatist forces. Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 for India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in his Himalayan homeland. PTI