Himalayan News Service

Bara, May 17:

Cadres of the five agitating parties locked up the Bara, Tanahun and Dhading district development committee offices today. They also locked up the offices of Kalaiya and Byas municipality and the local body offices in Pokhara as a part of their ongoing protest against regression. In Bara, the protesters had rallied through the district headquarters Kalaiya and the rally later turned into a mass meeting which was addressed by the outgoing DDC chairman Chhathu Prasad Yadav, outgoing Kalaiya mayor Rabindra Das Shrestha, chief of publicity department of CPN-UML district committee Krishna Poudel, central member of Democratic National Youth Association Ram Chandra Payasi and outgoing DDC vice-chairman Dhrub Gadtaula. They sought resignation of the officials at the local bodies nominated by the government. The police later unlocked the offices.

In Dhading, demonstrators locked out the office of Dhading DDC despite police arrests and repression. Police had baton-charged the agitators led by ex-DDC chairman Khem Prasad Lohani while they were entering the DDC premises. It is said UML leader Min Raj Kandel, NC district secretary Basu Timilsina and former DDC member Heramba Raj Silwal among others were injured in the incident. The agitators also locked out the office of Local Development Officer Narayan Gyawali for calling police to stop them. In Pokhara, the party workers and leaders of agitating parties locked out most of the offices of local bodies this morning. The agitators locked out the Pokhara Sub-metropolitan City office and the ward offices, the DDC office and Lekhnath municipality office. They also chanted pro-democratic slogans after locking out the offices. CPN-UML Kaski member and former mayor Krishna Thapa informed that they had stopped the staffs from entering their offices till 11.30 pm. Security bodies broke the locks in the afternoon.