BEIJING (AP) — Chinese police arrested five Tibetans, mostly Buddhist monks, whom they allege worked at the behest of foreign forces to persuade three people to set themselves on fire in anti-Beijing protests.

The arrests are the latest in an intensified crackdown on self-immolations by authorities in tightly controlled Tibetan areas and indicate that China’s new leadership is responding to the protesters’ calls for greater freedom by clamping down even harder.