KATHMANDU: The main opposition CPN-UML on Monday pointed its finger at Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Deputy Prime Minister Bimalendra Nidhi after its Rupandehi leader Durga Tiwari was shot dead by an unidentified gang this afternoon.

The UML connected the incident to the ongoing protests, mainly centred in Butwal of the district, against the Constitution amendment bill and claimed the murder was an attempt to foil the agitation.

"A patriotic youth leader has been murdered while Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal himself has been making inciting expressions against the UML and the protesting members of the and similar comments from the Minister for Home Affairs have been published," a statement issued by the UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel read.

"After the murder of a protesting youth leader," Pokharel said in the statement, "A serious suspicion has been surfaced that the protest is being weakened on the one hand; and criminal conspiracies are being hatched in order to create division in the country by jeopardising communal harmony on the other."

For last one month, the main opposition has been leading protests against the government's move to file the Constitution amendment bill. The protests have been centred in the proposed Province No. 5 as the bill had proposed splitting it.

Butwal is one of the major cities of the Province No. 5.

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