Nepalese police shot and killed two protesters after fresh clashes erupted in the country’s southern plains as a crisis over a new constitution deepens, a senior local police officer said yesterday.
The clashes broke out late on Saturday in the southeastern district of Saptari as protesters armed with batons and home-made tools tried to block a highway in defiance of police orders, the officer said.
“Two were killed in the police firing,” district police chief Bhim Dhakal told reporters.
“The police were forced to fire after the protestors became violent and attacked,” he said, adding that more than 40 protesters and police were also injured in the unrest.
Nepal is heavily dependent on India for fuel and other supplies, but little cargo has crossed the border from India since protests against a new constitution broke out in late September.
As a nationwide fuel shortage deepens, medical supplies are now also running dry in the impoverished, landlocked country.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged protesters to stop blocking essential supplies and called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.
More than 40 people have been killed in clashes between police and people protesting against the constitution, which was introduced in September after a deadly earthquake pushed warring political parties to reach an agreement.
Demonstrators from the Madhesi ethnic minority — mainly from Nepal’s southern plains — have been blockading the main Birgunj border crossing, protesting against the constitution they said leaves them politically marginalized.
Movement across other border checkpoints has also slowed to a crawl, prompting fuel rationing and forcing the government to start selling firewood as residents run out of cooking gas.
Nepal’s government accuses India, which has criticized the new constitution, of retaliating with an “unofficial blockade.”
New Delhi has denied the charge and urged dialogue with the protesting Madhesis, who have close cultural, linguistic and family ties to Indians living across the border.
A curfew was imposed yesterday in parts of Saptari, about 280km southeast of Kathmandu, Dhakal said.
“The security situation is relatively calm but there are still minor protests despite the curfew,” he said.
Dhakal said police had been escorting some trucks and passenger vehicles traveling from the border along a highway in Saptari.
Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli has said that the blockade is having an impact “several times more than the quake” that struck in April.
However, several rounds of talks between the government and the protesting parties have failed to reach an agreement.
The constitution, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to cement peace and bolster Nepal’s transformation to a democratic republic after decades of political instability and a 10-year Maoist insurgency.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese