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Nepal: Police-protesters clash, 1 killed

by IBNS 02 Nov 2015, 10:29 am

Kathmandu, Nov 2 (IBNS) At least one person was killed during firing by Nepali Police over protesters Shankaracharya Gate area in the country's Raxaul town, media reports said.

According to local media reports, the incident happened when the police  opened fire to control the protests at the gate.

The identity of the victim is not known so far.

The protesters and the police clashed in the area.

The injured people are undergoing treatment at Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital.

 The Nepal police earlier  lathicharged people from the Madhesi community - protesting against the country's new constitution - as they blocked a connecting bridge near the Indo-Nepal border in Raxaul in Bihar.

The Madhesis - natives of the Terai region who share ethnic ties with India - have been on a protest against the Nepal Government's plans to divide the Himalayan nation into seven federal provinces under the Constitution adopted in September.

Nepal Police has claimed that the Madhesi protestors are not allowing the supplies to enter from the Indian side.
  
Over 200 Indian trucks, stranded for about 45 days on the Nepal side of the border due to the protests, have finally left for India. But on the Indian side, thousands of trucks still remain stranded.

Tension has been simmering in the southern plains of the landlocked Nepal  since the new Constitution was formally adopted onSeptember 20. Madhesi parties - who claim to represent the interests of the Indian-origin inhabitants of Nepal's Terai region - and Tharu ethnic groups have been agitating against the charter, which they say are discriminatory to their interests.

The protests have cast a shadow on the India-Nepal ties, as goods and fuel to the Himalayan nation via the major trading points of Birgunj and Biratnagar have been shrunk.

Faced with an acute shortage of fuel and essential goods,Nepal recently signed a deal with China to import petroleum products.