Biratnagar, February 10:

Eighty-two people, including NC leader Ashok Koirala, CPN-UML leader Guru Baral, central vice-president of the Nepal Students’ Union, Basu Koirala, and FSU secretary of the Mahendra Multiple Campus, Bhim Parajuli, were freed today, reports from Biratnagar and Janakpurdham said.

They had been held for staging protests against the polls.

While 72 detainees were freed in Biratnagar, 10 were freed in Janakpurdham. Ramdayal Yadav and Shyam Bihari Yadav were among those freed in Janakpur. Ten protesters are still in detention in Dhanusha.

Meanwhile, issuing a statement today, the seven parties have flayed the government for taking party activists and leaders into custody without issuing arrest warrants. They were held while marking February 1 as the ‘Black Day’. The detainees, who have been kept at the Zonal Police Office, are on a relay hunger strike since Wednesday.