KATHMANDU: Nepal has witnessed to an unbelievable number of protests in the preceding month- November 16 - December 15. If the statistics compiled by the Nepal Police (NP) Headquarters is anything to go by, in Mangsir alone (November 16 - December 15), the country recorded at least 599 nationwide protests in various forms and dimensions.

The protest programmes were almost entirely sponsored by political parties, their sister organisations and pressure groups under different pretexts.

The data disclosed by the Nepal Police show a staggering 165 sit-in protests during the period. Mid-region tops the chart with 34 instances of sit-ins when compared to 32 in the Western region. Mid-western witnessed 3 sit-ins, Eastern region 22 and Far-western 14.

The Kathmandu Valley alone recorded 33 sit-in protests over the period of one month.

The cases of protest rallies stood at 130, with 33 and 32 in Eastern and Western region, respectively.

Of 130 protest rallies, the Kathmandu Valley recorded 28. The Far-west, however, recorded 3.

In terms of bandh, the month of November and December tallied 123 cases. There were 88 chakka jams, 49 torch rallies and 44 padlocking across the nation.

If the data compiled by NP is something to trust upon, the Far-western region is quieter to live in as it witnessed very few political strikes. “The region is found to be quieter as it recorded just 78 instances of political strikes, that too, were largely peaceful,” read the findings.

Mid-region and the Kathmandu Valley are more prone to violent than any other regions in the country, it said.

The Mid-region witnessed 123 instances of protests against 100 in the Valley. These places also reported frenzied scenes of violence during the period, causing huge inconveniences to the general public.

DIG Bigyan Raj Sharma, spokesperson, NP, complained that the crime graph was on rise as security forces had to keep an eye on the agitators devoting less time to track down the criminals, amid the crunch of human resources at NP.

“Are we to keep vigil over the agitators or look into crimes in the society?” asks Sharma, adding, “It is a double-whammy for Nepal Police to look into the crime and devote to keeping an eye on strikes.”

“If the political parties and interest groups were to refrain from protest programmes, crimes would be reduced to a large extent,” he adds.