SC order on detention

KATHMANDU: Responding to a habeas corpus petition, the SC on Sunday ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs and the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees in Nepal to provide information about the detention of four Pakistanis here. A division bench of Justices Kedar Prasad Giri and Sharada Shrestha sought clarification on the legal status of Pakistani nationals Usman Javed, Kaishif Mehomood, Mehmood Rasid and Memhood Rasid. — HNS

Case against minister

Kathmandu: A native of Kathmandu, Bijendra Lal Joshi, on Sunday filed a defamation case in the Kathmandu District Court against Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Rajendra Kumar Mahato for making a “defamatory statement” against Nepalis. The case was registered as a criminal offence. “By telling the Pahade people, who do not want to accept the regime of the Madhesi people, to leave the Tarai, Mahato made a defamatory statement against all Nepalis,” Joshi said. — HNS

Students lock CTEVT

MADHYAPUR THIMI: Demanding that their demands be met, students of the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) padlocked the CTEVT building on Sunday. A team of students led by Rabindra Dhital padlocked the chamber of the CTEVT vice-chairman, the office of the administrative chief and the Standard Determination Division. Among other things, the CTEVT students have been demanding that provisions be made to allow them to give MBBS entrance exams under old syllabus and the institution be named as the Higher Technical Education Council. They have also been seeking the removal of a dual fee system. The lockup will continue until our demands are met, they said. — RSS

Attack condemned

Kathmandu: The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and the Jagaran Nepal (JN) have denounced the assault on a journalist associated with the Kantipur Television, Bijaya Poudel. Poudel, who is also secretary of the Kantipur Television branch of the FNJ, was attacked while he was returning home after covering a programme on Saturday. In a press release, the FNJ said, “Even the Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation and chief guest of the programme, Matrika Prasad Yadav, did not like to listen to complaints of the victim who was assaulted by Maoist cadres.”— RSS

Interim health policy

BHAKTAPUR: Minister for Health and Population Giriraj Mani Pokhrel said the government will come up with a three-year interim health policy to provide reliable health services to the people. The government is committed to making health services accessible to all people, he said. The government is about to provide health services to the poor, marginalised and the downtrodden people in some 25 districts, he said. — RSS