3 min readKathmanduNov 12, 2015 10:06 AM IST
First published on: Nov 12, 2015 at 09:59 AM IST
Nepalese people stand in a queue for bus tickets to travel home, with most of the country’s bus services cancelled because of fuel shortage, in Kathmandu, Nepal. (Source: AP photo)
Madhesi protesters have attacked Nepalese vehicles carrying essential goods and torched a truck near the Indo-Nepal border as they continued their protests against the new Constitution. Cadres of Joint Madhesi Front vandalised vehicles carrying essential goods to Kathmandu by throwing petrol bombs.
Three vehicles were attacked by agitators at Bhawanipur Chowk of Birgunj near the Raxaul border on Wednesday night. The Madhesi protesters also torched a truck and vandalised three other vehicles in Birgunj on Tuesday.
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The incidents come even as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged “all sides” to immediately lift the blockade on the Indo-Nepal border as the country was heading towards a serious humanitarian crisis. Nepal is recovering from the massive earthquake over six months ago.
Meanwhile, Nepal Oil Corporation has decided to send a delegation to Dhaka to look for alternatives for importing fuel, officials said. The team will study the possibilities regarding importing fuel, mainly LPG, from Bangladesh amid an acute shortage of both petroleum products and cooking gas in the Himalayan nation.
Nepal government has imported around 200,000 litres of petroleum products from China in the wake of the continued blockade on the country’s southern border.
People in Nepal are celebrating Deepawali amidst a massive shortage of fuel and cooking gas. Market prices have soared due to the shortage of essential goods in the wake of the two month-long blockade in the country.
Nepal has been hit by a major political crisis over the new Constitution opposed by Indian-origin Madhesis who have led an agitation and blockaded key border trade points of Nepal with India, leading to a shortage of essential goods including fuel and cooking gas.
Madhesis, Indian-origin inhabitants of Nepal’s Terai region, are protesting division of their ancestral homeland in the new Constitution.
Over 40 people have died in the violent agitation that has also overwhelmed Indo-Nepal ties as transit of goods and fuel to the Himalayan nation from India via the major border trading points has been badly affected. The agitation by Madhesi groups has paralysed normal life across Nepal while the dearth of medicines has put lives of patients at stake.
Nepalese people stand in a queue for bus tickets to travel home, with most of the country’s bus services cancelled because of fuel shortage, in Kathmandu, Nepal. (Source: AP photo)
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