Nepalese policed arrested 53 Tibetan protesters in the outskirts of Kathmandu when hundreds of the Tibetan exiles gathered at a monastery there for morning prayer despite police warnings not to attend, the AFP reports.

The BBC captured video footage of the Tuesday arrests. The gathering of protesters were reportedly in support of the nine Tibetan monks and one nun who set themselves on fire this year in protest against Chinese rule. Five of the protests by self-immolation were fatal.

GlobalPost: Tenth Tibetan monk sets himself on fire, activist group say

"Self-immolation is pretty much unheard of in Tibetan society...Now this year alone, seven monks have committed acts of self-immolation in what are clearly very, very political acts directed at the Chinese government," Tenzin Dorjee, executive director of New York City's Students for a Free Tibet, told GlobalPost in an interview last month.

China has put heavy pressure on Nepal over the Tibetans to control the protests, the AFP reports.

VIDEO: Thousands rally in support of Tibetan monks