Palpa, January 19:

Police today arrested district-level leaders and student leaders of various political parties from different places of Tansen municipality of Palpa.

Former member of parliament (MP) from the CPN-UML, Yadav Bahadur Rayamajhi, Dev Raj Dhakal of the Nepali Congress (NC), Yagya Acharya of Jana Morcha Nepal and district president of the Nepali Congress-Democratic, Gambhir Jung Karki, and former DDC chairman Jhapendra Bahadur GC were among those arrested.

Police arrested GC and Rayamajhi in front of the main gate of the District Administration Office when they were returning after attending a public programme. Karki, Yagya Acharya and Dev Raj Dhakal were arrested from the Mehaldhara area.

Meanwhile, issuing a statement today, four student unions of Palpa have protested the arrest of the party leaders and activists and demanded that they be released unconditionally.

Meanwhile, in Pokhara, students affiliated to four student unions demonstrated to protest against the arrest of leaders of different political parties in Kathmandu and the prohibitory orders today.

The protest rally began from the main gate of Prithvi Narayan Campus at around 3 pm and later converged into a corner meeting after reaching Taxi Chowk.

The students had chanted slogans demanding release of the leaders and withdrawal of the prohibitory orders.

Addressing the corner meeting, western regional coordinator of All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), Sudhir Poudel, said the government’s ploy to disrupt the ongoing movement for democracy will be defeated.

He added that no one will be able to stop the mass meeting scheduled for Friday in Kathmandu.

Member of Nepal Students’ Union, Kaski, Kamal Mani Dhakal said the arrest of students studying in the classes in Kathmandu is the outcome of the defeated mentality of the government.He added that movement for democracy will be successful.