RAUTAHAT, JUNE 26

Fifteen persons were injured when a clash erupted between two groups of people over the rainwater at Maryadpur of Maulapur Municipality-1, in Rautahat, today.

A local Bhuwal Sah Sonar's house yard was filled with rainwater at Maryadpur. The rainwater was drained out to the land where Sonar's neighbour Hridaya Narayan Yadav had planted the paddy seeds. This led to the violent clash between the two sides.

Fifteen people, including eight from Sah's side and seven from Yadav's side, were injured in the incident. All the injured are being treated at a local hospital and their condition is said to be out of danger.

Bhuwal Sah Sonar, who had been undergoing treatment at the private clinic, said people from Yadav's side had attacked them in a pre-planned manner. 'People, including the ward chair, thrashed my family over a political and racial issue. Draining off rainwater through the canal was just a pretext,' Sonar bemoaned.

Police have arrested two persons for their involvement in the incident.

'A large number of police personnel have been deployed to avert the untoward incident and maintain law and order,' said SP Siddi Bikram Shah.

Meanwhile, former Minister Prabhu Sah said the incident was the continuation of what had happened on June 24 at the municipal assembly of Maulapur Municipality. A clash had erupted between the ruling UML cadres and the cadres of Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, and Upendra Yadav's Janata Samajwadi Party while the latter tried to disrupt the assembly that day.

Sah drew the attention of the Rautahat DAO and demanded that guilty involved in the incident be booked immediately.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 27 2021, of The Himalayan Times.