Gaighat, November 19

Five persons, including three police personnel, were injured in a clash in Belaka Municipality, Udayapur, yesterday night.

The dispute had erupted when locals took 20 tippers and one excavator loaded with boulders and stones under control. The vehicles were ferrying boulders and stones from Sishuwa Khola located in wards 4 and 5 of the municipality.

Police clashed with locals after the latter threw stones and boulders at the police when they tried to free the tippers the locals had taken under control. Police fired more than 10 rounds of tear gas to disperse the locals.

Constables Nara Bahadur Karki, Tulashi Karki and Padam karki were injured in the incident. Tipper driver Gogen Mandal, and local Prem Adhikari were critically injured.

Locals had obstructed the road at Lalbazaar area from 1:00pm after the clash with police. They had withdrawn their agitation after CDO Dhruba Kumar Khadka agreed to hold discussion with the mayor to settle the dispute.

Belaka Municipality had issued a tender and awarded the contract to excavate and sell river-borne materials three months ago. BP Construction was awarded the contract to excavate and sell 121,780 cubic metre stones and boulders from 10 streams inside the municipality.