Police personnel guard during a protest rally to pressurise the government to lift the blockade in Kathmandu yesterday. The protest rally was organised by CPN-Maoist party of Nepal as crisis continues in the country due to protest of southern Madhesi groups and unofficial blockade of Indian border.
DPA
Kathmandu
Four Nepalis were injured along the Indian border after security guards fired on them following an altercation, the local media said yesterday.
The men were crossing into Nepal with fertilizer when they were confronted by the guards, according to Kantipur Television.
“We told them we had fertilizers and then the conversation soon turned into an argument when they tried to prevent us from crossing and then they fired at us,” one of the Nepalis said on Himalaya Television from hospital.
Nepal has been crippled by protests in the southern region against the new constitution since August and India’s decision to close
the border on security grounds.
The embargo has caused severe shortages in Nepal, which is heavily dependent on imports from India. People have been smuggling fuel and other supplies across the border in small amounts.
At the heart of the conflict is the drawing of state borders in a federal system that ethnic groups in the south say will leave them without proper representation.
Nepal would seek details from India on the alleged shooting by Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel yesterday in eastern Nepal, the country’s home minister said.
Nepal’s Home Minister Shakti Basnet’s statement came during a meeting of a parliamentary committee.
India’s attention would be drawn through the ministry of foreign affairs, Basnet said while giving details of the incident to the committee members.
District police chief Sanjay Raj Sharma told the local media that Satana SSB post in-charge Ranbir Singh allegedly admitted on phone to the firing incident at Bhantabari, adding it was wrong on part of SSB personnel to open fire in Nepal-controlled land. He said necessary action would be taken in the incident.
