Nepal oppn CPN-UML says will resume protests from today

NEPAL’S MAIN opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist on Thursday said it was going to resume its Mechi-Mahakali campaign from Friday after suspending it for three days following death of four protesters in a police shootout during clashes between workers of CPN-UML and the Madhesi Morcha on Monday.

Top CPN-UML leaders, including party chief K P Oli, foreign affairs chief Madhav Nepal — both former Prime Ministers — and party vice chairman Bhim Rawal, said the timely intervention by the police saved CPN-UML leaders and its supporters, as the “Madhesi protesters had attacked the Assembly with petrol bombs and other lethal weapons”.

“Instead of rewarding the security officials and the chief of district administration for the restrain they showed, their transfer by the government was condemnable act which amounts to endorsing the act of Morcha,” they said. The Madhesi Morcha, they added, is a member of the ruling coalition and “the government must clarify whether they are a political or a criminal group.”