January 23, 2007	Tuesday	Muharram 03, 1428

KATHMANDU, Jan 22: At least two protesters were killed by police in southeastern Nepal on Monday as violence in the impoverished southeast of the Himalayan nation went into its third day, officials said.

In the capital Kathmandu, the government and former Maoist insurgents met to discuss the violence sparked by last week's shooting of a 16-year-old boy during a scuffle between Maoists and activists opposed to their entering the political mainstream.We have received reports that two protesters were killed when police fired in self defence, said Shashi Shekhar Shrestha, chief district officer.

The official said police were forced to retaliate after some of the protesters carrying guns opened fire on them.

The violence occurred in Lahan Bazaar, a town in the Terai region about 350 kilometres southeast of Kathmandu. A local human rights worker said that police had fired above the heads of protesters and used teargas.

Local health officials confirmed the death of two people while undergoing treatment at a hospital.

Two persons succumbed to bullet injuries while undergoing treatment, said Pashupati Chaudhary, one of the doctors at the Lahan Hospital who treated the injured people.

Chaudhary said 23 others who had sustained bullet wounds were brought in to the hospital for medical care, two of whom were in critical condition.

Some of the injured have been airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment, the doctor said.

Local authorities have imposed a 12-hour curfew from Monday, said a local police official who asked not to be identified.

Nepal's Maoists and government officials promised to investigate the unrest, which has threatened to cast a shadow over their moves to share power and put 10 years of civil war behind them.

The leaders have asked the government to establish a high-level investigation committee to look at the unrest in the Terai, said a statement from the leaders of the seven main political parties and the Maoists.

Twenty policemen were hurt and at least eight government offices were destroyed by irate mobs on Sunday, despite curfews imposed at the weekend.

Protesters also torched 17 buses and trucks, leading Nepal's largest public transport union to call an indefinite, nationwide transport strike. No buses and only a few taxis were plying the streets of the capital on Monday.

Nepal's Terai population makes up 48 per cent of Nepal's 27 million people, with the majority of them belonging to the often excluded Mahadhesi group.

The protests appear to have been driven by the Mahadhesi Janadhikar Forum, which objects to a new interim constitution passed this week by Nepal's parliament that paves the way for the former rebels, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), to join the legislature as a legitimate political party.

—AFP