PIL against VAT increase

KATHMANDU:

A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday challenging the hike in Value Added Tax (VAT). Advocates Binod Karki and Rajiv Banstola filed the petition seeking a court order to to withdraw the hike. They have claimed the hike is unconstitutional when there is no House of Representatives to discuss whether it is justified. — HNS

Chinese Film Festival

RUPANDEHI:

Nepal-China Friendship Society Lumbini is to organise a Chinese film Festival here next month to mark the anniversary of the Nepal-China diplomatic relations. According to a release issued by president of the society Surya Lal on Thursday, an interaction programme on various aspects of Nepal-China relations and poster display will also be organised on the occasion. Meanwhile, Shekhar Pradhan, Ram Bhakta Rawal, Hari Ghimire and Sundar Wasti are nominated as members to the executive committee of the society. — HNS

Three hurt in blast

DAMAK:

Three persons were injured when a group of suspected Maoists detonated bomb at the District Land Revenue Office, Damak on Thursday. Those injured in the bomb-blast are accountant of Land Revenue Office Mohan Adhikari and two civilians Teju Khanal and Mina Budhathoki of Damak. They are reported to have retuned back after treatment. Five rooms of the ground floor of the DLRO have been damaged while all the furniture have been broken down, eyewitnesses said. Estimated property worth Rs 150,000 has been damaged in the blast, according to the police. — HNS

22 Bhutanese in jail

DAMAK:

Twenty-two refugees living at the Bhutanese refugee camp at Sanischare have been jailed for their involvement in different crimes, the police office at Urlabari said, adding that seven people facing criminal action — Suk Bahadur Rai and Jagat Rai, Kamal Rai and Janak Bahadur Rai, Narayan Rai, Prith Rai and Khadga Budhathoki — have been absconding.— HNS

Two killed

BARA:

Nagendra Patel, secretary of Bhagwanpur village development committee in Bara, was found dead on Thursday, while a group of suspected Maosits killed Ram Bhajan Mahato of Chhata Pipra village development committees on the charge of spying against them on Wednesday, the police said. — HNS

Minister’s Japan visit

KATHMANDU:

Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka paid a courtesy call on Riyutaro Hasimoto, chairman of the Japan-Nepal Parliamentary Committee and ex-prime minister of Japan, at Kobe, Japan, on Wednesday. He read out the prime minister’s message to Hasimoto and thanked him for the continued support of the Japanese government to Nepal. — RSS

Indian held for smuggling

KALAIYA:

The police on Wednesday arrested Kasim Baitha, an Indian national, with 4 kg of marijuana at Kalaiya municipality-9. Baitha was trying to pedal the contraband to India by hiding it inside an extra tube, which he had fitted in his bicycle. — RSS

ANNISU-R member quits

SURKHET:

Member of the All-Nepal National Independent Students’ Union (Revolutionary) Bheri-Karnali coordination committee, Saroj Chandra BC, has dissociated himself from the committee. Stating that the present conflict cannot be resolved through guns, BC, in a communique issued on Wednesday, has stressed the need to resolve the conflict through talks. — RSS