KATHMANDU: The Human Rights and Peace Society today urged the government for the immediate release of Badri Prasad Chaulagai and Tsiring Lama -- local residents of Melamchi of Sindhupalchowk district.

The duo was arrested from Jorpati of Kathmandu four days ago in connection with the protest staged by Melamchi locals.

They were demanding the programme to lay the foundation stone for the construction of diversion tunnel of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project in Melamchi should have held in Melamchi instead of Sundarijal.

Issuing a press statement in the capital, the rights body condemned the use of force by the police and said that the problem of the Melamchi locals should be solved through dialogues.

Similarly, it also deplored the clashes between the activists of the Nepal Students Union and the Young Communist League at Dravya Shah Multiple Campus, Gorkha. "We need agreement between the various political parties and its affiliated groups, not confrontations at this juncture," the statement read.

The rights body also called on the government to work seriously to control the diarrhoeal outbreak that has spread in various districts of the mid and far-west. It urged the government to fully utilise state resources and take assistance from international community, if necessary, to control the outbreak at the earliest and to provide compensation to the victims' families.