Kathmandu, August 17:

Informal talks between Nepal Students’ Union (NSU) and the pro-Maoist All Nepal National Independent Students Union -Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) held at a hotel at Bagbazaar made no headway.

Pradeep Poudel, president of the NSU, Gagan Thapa, former general secretary of the NSU, Lekhnath Neupane and Himal Sharma, president and general secretary of the ANNISU-R, Kalyan Gurung, president of the NSU-Democratic, Thakur Gaire, chairman of the pro-UML

ANNFSU, and Jiban Gautam, president of the ANNFSU-Unified were present in today’s meeting.

“The meeting was an informal one,” Paudel said adding that they dwelled on some issues but could not it turn the meeting into a formal one after the ANNISU-R pressed its demands.

Himal Sharma, ANNISU-R general secretary, said the two-hour informal meeting couldn’t produce any results and that his organisation would go on with its protest programmes.

ANNISU-R today forced closure of all campuses in the valley to protest the “home

administration’s intervention” and demanded unconditional release of their cadres.

“We have called an indefinite closure of all the educational institutions throughout the country from tomorrow,” he said while talking to this daily. He added that the protest programmes would continue if their demands were not met.

Tension mounted after the NSU and the ANNISU-R cadres clashed at Thapathali Engineering Campus on last Monday over the issue of seizure of weapons from the hostel of the campus.

The ANNISU-R cadres said the NSU had acted on a planned manner to defame the pro-Maoist student body and clash ensued between the two groups