Dhangadi, August 17 

Various parts of Kailali remained tense today after a clash erupted between Tharuhat loyalists and agitators demanding an intact far-west.

More than 10 persons from both sides were injured in clashes at Attariya, Hasanpur and Pipalchautara among other places of the district.

Inspector Sagar Bohara of District Police Office was also injured in the scuffle. According to DSP Bishworaj Khadka, they had to fire 12 rounds of tear gas shells to take the situation under control.

Tharuhat loyalists were supposed to hold a mass gathering today and Madhesi leaders were invited to address the gathering. The intact far-west activists called a bandh to obstruct the programme today.

Leaders of intact far-west had agreed to call off the bandh and allow Tharuhat supporters to attend a mass gathering during negotiations held on Saturday night, but cadres of intact far-west defied the decision of their leaders and obstructed more than a 100 tractors at different places of the district today.

The agitating Tharuhat Joint Struggle Committee, which has hit the street for the past few days demanding Tharuhat province, had transported various central leaders of different parties and hundreds of cadres from Banke, Bardiya and Kanchanpur to the gathering. Federal Socialist Forum senior leader Ashok Rai and CPN-Maoist Secretary Dev Gurung had addressed the mass gathering at Campuschowk in Dhangadi.

Speaking at the programme, Ashok Rai accused the leaders of the four major parties causing a deadlock in the country. “Leaders of the four parties are narrow-minded, they are the not leaders of the country, but regionalist ethnic leaders,” he argued. Rai claimed that the land of Kailali and Kanchanpur and other areas was Tharuhat, is Tharuhat and will remain intact in the future as well. The identity and rights of Tharuhat is associated with the land, he argued. Rai urged the agitating intact far-west community and Tharuhat to stage protests without obstructing to each other’s rights.

CPN-Maoist leader Dev Gurung said that the rights and identity of the marginalised and under privileged communities needed to be established.