Nepal Police Fire on Madhesi Protesters, Killing at Least 3

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/world/asia/nepal-police-fire-on-madhesi-protesters-killing-at-least-3.html

Version 0 of 1.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — The police fired on ethnic Madhesi protesters in eastern Nepal on Thursday, killing at least three of them in the latest flare-up of political tensions over Nepal’s Constitution.

Members of the Madhesi group have been demanding changes to the new Constitution, which they say dilutes their political voice.

The protesters on Thursday tried to attack a pro-Constitution rally organized by the youth wing of the governing Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) in the town of Rangeli, said Toyam Raya, the chief district officer of Morang, which includes Rangeli. The police fired tear gas and then opened fire on the protesters in Rangeli and nearby Dainiya after they started throwing stones at the police, he said.

Mr. Raya said that eight protesters and 13 police officers were wounded in the clashes, but members of Madhesi parties said that 35 protesters had been injured.

Madhesi parties have been calling for more rights since August, and clashes between protesters and the police have left more than 50 people dead.

Compounding tensions, Nepal has faced severe fuel shortages since late September, after the Constitution was adopted. Nepali officials have accused India of ordering an unofficial blockade of cross-border trade over its objections to the process by which the Constitution was adopted, a charge India denies.

India has blamed protests in Nepal for hindering the passage of fuel trucks, resulting in the shortages. Since the passage of the Constitution, the Madhesis have staged sit-ins on the border.

In a statement on Thursday, Upendra Yadav, the chairman of the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum of Nepal, a Madhesi group, accused the governing party of depriving “marginalized communities of rights instead of resolving issues through dialogue.”

The Madhesis say that the redrawn boundaries of seven provinces cut through their ancestral homeland and limit their political power. They have been holding talks with the government for months, but have made little headway.