Rautahat, February 18

Cadres of the agitating Madhes-based parties today disrupted a programme to be attended by State Minister for Health Mohammad Mustak Alam in Gaur of Rautahat district by vadalising the stage set up for him to address the function.

The programme was being held in the district hospital to welcome the minister. Although Minister Alam was at his home in Rajpur Farahadawa for the past four days, the programme was scheduled for today.

But the cadres of agitating parties went berserk after learning that preparations were being made for the minister’s visit to the hospital.

“We disrupted the programme as we have decided to prevent any ministers who have made remarks against Madhes and Madhesis from holding any programme in the Tarai districts,” said district leader of Tarai Madhes Democratic Party Anil Singh, adding the ban will be in place until their demands were met .

“The visit was just to meet the doctors and learn about their problems at the hospital,” Minister Alam said. “But the incident has left me saddened,” he added.

The minister said the programme had to be cancelled in order to prevent any untoward incident.

DSP Rajendra Pokharel of the Rautahat police said the police had to use mild force after the front cadres went unruly.

“We had to use force to prevent the situation from going out of control,” he said, adding, “Though some front cadres also received injuries in course of our operation, no one has been detained.”

Meanwhile, Dr Prabin Jha and Bimalesh Thakur at the hospital were injured when police used force to disperse the agitators.