The hospital’s administrator Chandra Kumar Rai, citing the doctors, said the Tibetan exile in his twenties, identified as Thundup Dopchen, succumbed to his burns at 10:15 pm. He had suffered burns over 95 percent of his body. [break]
DSP Jivan Kumar Shrestha of Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj, said the deceased’s body is currently kept at the forensic department for post-mortem. The police officer added that nobody has approached police to claim the body, yet.
He had set himself on fire at 8:30 am Wednesday and tried to run around the great Bouddha Stupa. But his attempt to hurt himself further was foiled as police were able to extinguish the fire and take him to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Police suspect that the young man had come from India.The incident police described as being the first case of "self-immolation" by a Tibetan in Nepal came just ahead of the community´s planned protest rallies in Kathmandu.
The Tibetan government in exile, based in the Indian town of Dharamshala in the foothills of the Himalayas, had previously put the number of self-immolations since 2009 at 99, with 83 of them eventually dying. Tibetans have chosen self-immolations with a view to draw worldwide attention to their cause.
Related story
Nepal to ban March 10 Tibetan uprising day events
_20191222200001.jpg)
