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Tibetan activist dies after battling for life for two days

Last updated on: March 28, 2012 18:17 IST

Jamphel Yeshi, the Tibetan activist who set himself ablaze during a protest against Chinese President Hu Jintao's India visit, died at a hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday morning.

"The youth died at 7.30 am today. He had 98 per cent burns," Dr L K Makhija, senior specialist in burns and plastic surgery at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital who was looking into his case said.

26-year-old Yeshi had on Monday set himself ablaze at Jantar Mantar where Tibetans were protesting against the visit of Hu Jintao.

He is the 31st Tibetan who died after committing self-immolation to demand freedom for Tibet.

No sooner had the news spread, police security was tightened at the RML hospital gates and inside the hospital premises.

"Who knows they might start a protest anywhere, so we have been asked to stay on alert all around the hospital and inside, till the body is not released from the hospital," a policemen, who was stationed at the hospital, said.

"Many of our fellow Tibetans who were assembled at the Jantar Mantar for a prayer meeting for Yeshi were arrested. I escaped and came here," a Tibetan, who was waiting at the RML hospital for the release of the body, said.

"I saw policemen questioning those who looked like Chinese, assuming them to be Tibetans before entering the hospital gates. The journalist of a web portal, Phayul.com, a website that publishes news and views on Tibet, has also been arrested and put in the Lajpat Nagar police station."

Jamphel Yeshi, who had been living in the old camp of Majnu Ka Tila in the city for the last two years, was the youngest of the five siblings.

Born in Kham Tawu, he escaped to India in 2006 and studied at the Tibetan Transit School in Dharamshala for nearly three-and-a-half years.

PTI
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