Nepal police shot dead four Indian-origin Madhesis blockading the East-West highway in Terai region as violence returned to the country.
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The situation has strained Nepal-India ties with Kathmandu accusing New Delhi of imposing an undeclared blockade along the global border.
The ethnic minority Madhesis have been launching agitation for the past three months claiming that Nepal’s new constitution was not broad-based and a few of the provisions would politically marginalize them.
The clashes broke out late on Saturday in the southeastern district of Saptari as protesters armed with batons and home-made tools tried to block a highway in defiance of police orders, the officer said.
The fresh clashes injured as many as 17 protesters and 25 police personnel, of whom five protesters and two policemen are said to be in serious condition.
The nascent republic, wedged between China and India, has been in turmoil since September when it adopted a new constitution.
Two protesters were killed and over 40 more were injured when police clashed with the Madhesi ethnic group, which was blocking important highway trade points that are crucial in transporting Nepal’s fuel and medical supplies.
Two more people died in the violence on Saturday in southern Nepal, pushing the number of deaths in the agitation to over 50.
Indian External Affairs Minister Vikas Swarup said that his government was “distressed at (a) loss of lives in police firing”, citing that a political solution was needed.
As per the programme, protest rallies and public meetings will be organised in different parts of the country including Sunsari, Morang, Dhanusha, Sarlahi, Bara, Makanwanpur, Rupendehi and Kailali. In April a series of earthquakes killed over 9,000 people and destroyed a large portion of the country.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, expressed “his growing concern over the blocking of essential supplies on the Nepal-India border”, in a statement on Friday.
But talks between the government and Madhesi groups have yielded little progress.
Trade between India and Nepal has slowed drastically since the passage of the Constitution, causing a fuel crisis in Nepal.
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Nepalis living in the United States on Sunday staged protests in Washington DC, the US Capital, against the unofficial blockade imposed by India at the Indo-Nepal border points.
