DHAKA: A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in northwest China on Thursday, state media said, in what Tibetan media described as a suicide in protest against Chinese policies.

The monk, 43, ‘committed self-immolation’, in Gansu province, which has a heavy ethnic Tibetan population, state-run news service Xinhua said on a social media account, reports The Straits Times.

There have been more than 120 similar acts by Tibetans in China and elsewhere since 2009, most of them fatal.

India-based Tibetan news website Phayul.com reported that the monk, named Tsuiltrim Gyatso, had died after setting himself on fire ‘to protest the Chinese government’.

BDST: 1820 HRS, DEC 19, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor