Kathmandu: Four demonstrators died in Nepal on Wednesday after being shot by the police as fresh protests erupted in the country’s southern plains over a new draft Constitution.
The police fired shots and teargas when thousands of protesters surrounded their headquarters in the southeastern district of Mahottari and torched the house of a judge. “Three sustained bullet injuries in the clash and died while undergoing treatment,” police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam said.
A fourth man was killed in the nearby district of Saptari when police fired at hundreds of protestors who threw stones and bottles as the police tried to escort vehicles through a blocked national highway. Anger has been building for weeks in Nepal after legislators struck a breakthrough deal on a Constitution, spurred by April’s earthquake.
Plans to divide the Himalayan nation into seven provinces have sparked fury among historically marginalised communities, including the Madhesi and Tharu minorities, who say the new internal borders will limit their political representation.
