Kathmandu, September 28, 2006

As per the understanding reached between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist supremo Prachanda at the PM’s residence this morning, the government and the Maoist talks teams decided to hold the second round of summit talks on October 8.

“We have decided to hold the next summit talks on October 8 and it will take a concrete decision on all aspects of the peace process,” Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula said after the two talks teams met at Hotel Himalaya.

He said the talks teams reviewed the progress made so far in the ongoing peace process and expressed commitment to move ahead to implement the agreements.

He said the meeting between PM and Prachanda was held in a cordial manner.

Prachanda had also met CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Nepal last evening. Maoist talks team leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara said they agreed to postpone the summit meeting till October 8 as they had yet to reach consensus on some important political issues.

“We had tried our best to hold the summit talks before Dashain but more groundwork needs to be done for the summit,” said Mahara.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress (Democratic) held an informal meeting at the UML’s parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar today to discuss the contents of the interim constitution and arms management procedure.

Sacked staffers ransack FM station

Employees of the Saptakoshi FM, who were dismissed from their jobs recently, vandalised the gate of the FM station at Itahari today.

Four persons, including managing director of the FM station, were injured in the scuffle.

The furore erupted after a group of former FM employees, including Sanjeev Regmi, tried to enter the station after vandalising the main gates, chief of the station’s news department Lila Raj Bhattarai said.

MD Krishna Dahal, shareholder Prem Basnet, accountant Sanjeev Dahal and guard Bhim Limbu were injured in the scuffle between the dismissed employees and management.

The management accused the sacked employees of launching an attack and uttering obscenities. The management added that the same group of employees had vandalised the branch office of Saptakoshi FM at Biratnagar and manhandled station manager Sunil Neupane.

Dismissed employee Sanjeev Regmi said they were sacked without any reason. He added that they were barred from entering the FM station premises when they merely wanted to hold talks with the FM officials.

Officials of trade unions affiliated to the CPN-Maoists, Jana Morcha and Nepali Congress also accompanied the employees to the FM premises.