Kathmandu, March 2:

The agitating Maoist victims today staged a sit-in in front of the main gate of the Singh Durbar, disrupting traffic flow for half an hour.

The protesters had taken out a rally from Tinkune, where they have been living since February 17, to Singh Durbar.

In the sit-in, protesters chanted slogans against Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula and demanded his resignation. “This is an opportunity for him (Sitaula) to prove his competency. He should step down if he cannot settle the longstanding issues of hundreds of victims of Maoist atrocities,” said Gokul Prasad Ghimire, the valley in-charge of the Association of the Victims of Maoist Atrocities.

Bhojraj Timilsina, the co-ordinator of the National Struggle Committee of the Victims of Maoists’ Atrocities, said the committee has decided to bring all victims from across the country to the valley to intensify their protest. “Though the protest was launched with a handful of victims, there are thousands of victims outside the valley who are suffering silently,” he said.

Ghimire also said 15 of the protesters have been made to disappear by the police.