Birgunj, March 15:

The Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum ( MJF) closed the Birgunj bazaar at 4 pm today.

District Police Office Parsa said MJF activists vandalised the Internal Revenue Office, Fuse Department of the NEA and Birgunj sub-metropolis ward number 8 office this evening. They tossed documents out of the offices and torched them. Police fired teargas shells to disperse the agitators.

The MJF said it closed the bazaar protest police intervention in a sit-in staged by its cadres at

the Miteri Bridge in the Indo-Nepal border area this morning.

Police constables Khem Bahadur Thapa and Dhan Bahadur Katwal were injured in a clash between police and the agitators. Police arrested six youths, including Raj Kumar Turaha, Sohel Yadav and Harindra Gupta, on the charge of vandalising public property.

Police fired teargas shells to disperse the agitators at Maisthan.

The agitators set fire to the optical fibre worth Rs 1 lakh, Nepal Telecom chief in Birgunj, Lalit Kumar Das said. MJF cadres tried to set fire to a pick-up van belonging to the NT, but police foiled the bid.

The agitators smashed the windscreen of a tanker, which was heading towards Shreepur from Rakshaul under police escort. Meanwhile, work at the Birgunj Customs Office (BCO) resumed today.

In Dhanusha district, police arrested 11 MJF cadres for trying to padlock government offices. People were affected after the MJF padlocked the government offices collecting taxes in Kalaiya, a report from Bara said. The MJF staged a rally in Kalaiya.