KATHMANDU: The government claimed that police were compelled to open fire on protesters in Birgunj today for self-defence after the agitators hurled petrol bombs at various offices including a local police post.

An Indian youth, Aashish Kumar Ram, from Raxaul of Bihar state of India, was killed in the incident this afternoon.

Issuing a press statement this evening, the Ministry of Home Affairs claimed that the law enforcement personnel were forced to open fire as their repeated bids to take the situation under control with baton-charging and tear gas failed.

Earlier, police had used 44 rounds of tear gas to disperse the mob which was attacking on security personnel, claimed MoHA spokesperson Laxmi Prasad Dhakal.

The crowd had hurled a petrol bomb at local Inarwa Police Post, injured 10 Armed Police Force and seven Nepal Police personnel, Dhakal said in the statement.

The Ministry has observed that police were successful in resuming mobility across the border by removing protesters off the borderland earlier this morning, but the "Indian side did not cooperate with local Nepali officials' requests with Indian counterparts to let cargo vehicles, fuel tankers and gas bullets enter Nepal."

While removing the protesters from the no-man's land, police arrested five agitators and two of them were identified as Indians, according to the Ministry.

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