A Tibetan monk self-immolated on 9 July 2015 in the eastern Tibetan province of Kham.
Sonam Topgyal, the 26-year-old monk, staged his self-immolation protest at approximately 6 pm local time in the Gesar Square located in Kyegudo town, in Yulshul (Ch: Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), Qinghai Province.
“A large contingent of Chinese security forces immediately arrived at the spot of the self-immolation and blocked all the main roads,” a source with contacts in Tibet told the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
The Beijing-based Tibetan writer Woeser reported on her social media pages that a large number of special paramilitary troops had been sent to Kyegudo soon after self-immolation; they have since blocked the main roads leading to the spot of the self-immolation. All communication services, including telephone lines and Internet, have been shut down in the area.
Recently, Chinese authorities have blocked all Internet lines in Golog (Ch: Guoluo) TAP (Qinghai Province), 11 counties of Kardze TAP (Sichuan Province), and some parts of Ngaba (Ch: Aba) TAP (Sichuan Province). It has been more than half a month since this Internet blockade, making it difficult to get immediate updates on the situation in these areas.