Six student leaders arrested for staging protest outside Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu

KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 28

Six student leaders of Nepal Student Union, the student wing of major opposition Nepali Congress, were arrested today for staging a protest outside the Chinese Embassy at Baluwatar against the alleged border encroachment by the Chinese side in Humla district.

The NSU leaders today morning protested outside the embassy displaying placards and chanting slogans such as, ‘Stop Chinese Intervention’, ‘Stop Border Encroachment.’ The police, who arrived late at the protest site, had arrested them while the protesters were returning from the protest site, according to NSU leaders.

Some of protesters, who were arrested are campaigners of ‘Chinau Simana, Jogaun Mato’ (Lets identify border, save soil). They have been raising their voice against border encroachment.

Former NSU president Kundan Raj Kafle, who is leading protests against the alleged border encroachment, said that the incumbent communist government had turned a deaf ear to the issue of border encroachment by the communist rulers of China. “The government is not raising voice against the Chinese government mainly because they share similar ideologies. But, we cannot sit quiet if they encroach our border. We will organise stringent protest programmes against the illegal act in the coming days,” Kafle said.

Kafle, citing their lawmakers and local leaders of the area, said the Chinese side had encroached around 1.5 kilometres of land in the past 10 years.

Media outlets had quoted local people and NC lawmakers of the area saying China had encroached Nepali land by constructing 11 buildings in Lapcha Limi Area of Namkha Rural Municipality of Humla district.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had on September 23, refuted the allegation that China had constructed buildings within Nepali territory.

Following this, the major opposition NC had criticised the government’s move and suggested that the government should have heard the voices of local authorities before speaking anything on the sensitive border issue.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 29, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.