Kathmandu, April 6:

Three policemen and two civilians were injured today as police was compelled to use force at six prepaid sim card distribution centres to control crowds that gathered to get sim cards, SSP Dhak Bahadur Karki said.

At the Gongabu centre, police resorted to lathi-charge as a mob pelted stone at the Nepal Telecom office. Police fired three rounds of teargas shells to control the situation. According to Karki, three policemen and two civilians were injured in the incident.

The distribution at the Kirtipur centre was cancelled as locals demanded that they be given priority while distributing the sim cards. “We had to use force as the situation went out of control,” Karki said. The mob smashed window panes at Chhauni and Gongabu centres.

The crowd went berserk as rumours spread that the centre had run out of sim cards.

The NT distributed about 70,000 prepaid sim cards, even as hundreds of people, who queued for the whole day, returned home disappointed. The NT has fixed 15 distribution centres in the valley and one in Dhading for distributing the cards.

People reached the Bhadrakali centre at midnight. Police baton-charged people to bring the tense situation under control.

The crowd in the Chabahil centre went berserk after rumours spread that the centre had run out of stock of sim cards. Police resorted to baton-charge to control the situation. “We had never expected that such a huge number of people will turn up,” said Sugat Ratna Kanshakar, managing director, NT. Police used force at the Bhadrakali and Chhauni centres to control the crowd. The crowd smashed glasses of the NT office in Chhauni.

Police resorted to lathi-charge as the situation in the Naxal distribution centre also went out of control.