Rajbiraj, October 25

Locals on Sunday staged a demonstration in Rajbiraj, Saptari, protesting police ‘brutality’.

On Saturday night, the police had used force after locals staged demonstrations and obstructed the road at Jolahari in Maleth-4 along the Rajbiraj-Rupani road section.

According to local Bhimraj Yadav, three teenagers and five women were injured in police action.

“The police were escorting long-route vehicles leaving Rajbiraj but as the locals gathered there for the cultural programme refused to give way, security personnel used force and the locals also retaliated by pelting stones,” he said.

Dipesh Yadav, 15, and Bachchalal Noniyan of Basabitti-5, among other injured, are undergoing treatment at Rajbiraj-based Gajendranarayan Singh Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital. A few policemen are also learnt to have been injured in the incident. Locals of Maleth, Basabitti and Rajbiraj municipality demonstrated in the district headquarters Rajbiraj carrying clubs and sticks from early morning today. The demonstrators marched through various parts of the town before holding a protest meeting at Sahid Dashan Chowk.

While the agitators forced shops to pull down their shutters, they also obstructed vehicular movement. Speaking at the protest meeting today, Sadbhavana Party general secretary Manis Kumar Suman warned of bitter consequences if the state continued to be apathetic to their concerns.

Various other Madhesi leaders including Federal Socialist Forum Nepal district chairperson Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Nepal

Sadvawana Party district chairperson Subi Yadav, Rastriya Madhes Samajbadi Party district vice-chairperson Satish Kumar Singh had also spoken on the occasion.