Four Madhesi protesters shot dead in fresh Nepal clashes

At least 15 police personnel have also sustained injuries as the crowd obstructing trucks along the highway pelted stones on them. The government has clamped curfew along the highway area in the district, but there were reports of large-scale defiance by the locals.

The United Democraric Madhes Front, that has called the indefinite bandh in the Terai region for the past 64 days, has been demanding representation of Madhesis in elected bodies and other state apparatus in proportion to their population, among other things.

The violence comes as the landlocked country, heavily dependent on India for supplies of essential goods, continues to reel under acute shortage of fuels, medicines and other items for over two months now.

Nepal has accused India of siding with the protesters and meddling in its internal affairs, a charge New Delhi denies.
Expressing concern over the fresh violence, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup, who is now in Malaysia accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeted that India was “distressed at loss of lives in police firing in Saptari”.

“Political solution (was) required” in resolving the differences over the new Constitution which Madhesis — the Indian-origin inhabitants of Nepal’s Terai region – are protesting over division of their ancestral homeland.

Meanwhile, Nepalese lawmakers belonging to Madhes-based parties Sunday obstucted proceedings at the Parliament over the police firing following which the meeting was postponed. Lawmakers from the agitating group surrounded the rostrum and shouted slogans after the Speaker, Onsari Gharti Magar, refused to grant time to Terai Madhes Democratic Party lawmaker Sarbendra Nath Shukla. with pti inputs