The captain of India’s national football team has refused to carry the Olympic torch during its planned procession through Delhi this month in protest over China’s handling of recent unrest in Tibet.

Bhaichung Bhutia, a Buddhist from the northeastern state of Sikkim, which borders Tibet, was one of 17 top Indian athletes asked to carry the torch by the Indian Olympic Association.

But in a faxed reply to the Association, which was made public this morning, he became one of the first athletes in the world to refuse to carry the torch because of China’s policies in Tibet.

“This is my way of standing by the people of Tibet and their struggle,” he was quoted as saying in The Times Of India. “I abhor violence in any form.”

He added: “I sympathise with the Tibetan cause. I have many friends in Sikkim who follow Buddhism.”

His stand is the latest blow to China’s efforts to prevent the Beijing Olympics from being overshadowed by the pro-independence protests and anti-Chinese riots that flared across Tibet last month.

It is also likely to heighten Chinese concerns about whether Indian authorities are willing – and able – to stop Tibetan activists from disrupting the torch’s procession through Delhi, which starts on April 17.

China was infuriated last month when Tibetan protesters broke into the Chinese Embassy compound in Delhi.

Chinese diplomats have since held several high-level meetings with Indian officials to discuss security arrangements for the torch – and Indian organisers now say their plans are “foolproof”.

But the Delhi leg of the torch relay remains one of the biggest worries for China as India is home to 100,000 Tibetan exiles, including the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.

The relay has already been marred by protests by a pro-Tibetan group in Greece, where the torch was lit last week, before heading to Beijing yesterday.

Today, it moves to Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, beginning a 20-country, 85,100-mile global journey that is expected to attract further protests in several cities.

Tibetan exiles marked the torch’s arrival in Beijing yesterday by staging another colourful protest in Delhi, smashing Chinese products in the street before delivering a petition to the Chinese Embassy.

They have cancelled plans to march all the way to Tibet, but are planning their own version of the torch relay this month and a Tibetan Olympics in May in the north Indian town of Dharamsala.

Dharamsala has been the seat of the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile since he fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Mr Bhutia's decision came a week after President Sarkozy of France suggested that he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics because of China's handling of the unrest in Tibet.

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