Dang, May 9:

Political detainees being held at the District Prison in Dang district headquarters, Gohari have launched a phase-wise strike programme putting forward their four-point demand.

The detainees have formed a strike mobilisation committee called the Bandi Morcha, Dang for the same purpose.

Although the government has removed the terrorist tag from the Maoists, there is no difference in the treatment of the rebels at the hands of the security personnel, committee coordinator Ram Bahadur Dahit said in a statement today. The detainees’ demands include the release of all political detainees, the release and treatment of Ramesh Mahat, 15, who lost his mental equilibrium while in government custody, making public the whereabouts of all those who went missing from Tulsipur Prison in 2002 and action against the jail staffers and security personnel responsible for torturing inmates throughout the country.

The statement also accused the seven-party alliance of delaying radical changes that the Nepalis are clamouring for. The movement will continue until the formation of a democratic republic, it said.

Programmes on anvil are: sit-ins, relay hunger strike on May 12 and 13 and, if their demands are still not met, a fast-to-death from May 14.