PATHLAIYA: Students of Nepal Rastriya Higher Secondary School in Bara’s Auraha gave up their studies on friday to welcome a leader. Their teachers had asked the pupils to queue up, carrying their books, to welcome Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

“The school was over for us once we welcomed the leader,” said Ishwori Regmi, an eighth grader. Dr Bhattarai was on his way to inaugurate a school building in Dumarwana. The students had studied only the first two periods.

‘’To begin with, we did not know why we were being taken out. We came to know only later that we were going to welcome a leader,” said Saraswati Badu. Students from grades II to X had waited for the senior Maoist leader. “We waited for half an hour for him,’’ another student added.

Meanwhile, the teachers went on reminding the students to give the former finance minister an ovation. Teacher Sunil Singh admitted to have brought the students for the purpose.