Scores wounded in Nepal constitution protests
Nepalese police have clashed with demonstrators across the country, leaving dozens of them injured during protests over the draft of a long-awaited new constitution.
"Clashes have occurred in several districts with hundreds of our supporters and more than 50 have been injured," Laxman Lal Karna, an opposition lawmaker, told AFP on Monday.
Legislators have spread out across the country to collect feedback on the draft constitution, while opposition lawmakers have expressed dissatisfaction over a lack of details in the new charter.
After long bickering last month, lawmakers tabled the draft of the new constitution in parliament. The charter offers a new federal structure dividing the country into eight provinces.
The historic June agreement on the charter, which was spurred by April's devastating earthquake, aims to end years of political uncertainty in the impoverished country devastated by a decade-long war which ended in 2006 when Maoist rebels laid down their arms and entered politics.
However, when the government began public discussions on the draft on Monday, the opposition supporters slammed a lack of details on where and how the new internal borders will be drawn in the new constitution and started throwing stones at government representatives.
Opposition parties have been seeking to draw up borders along lines that could favor ethnic groups.
Protesters in southern Rautahat district, which has a notable Madhesi community, threw bricks and stones at government representatives at one meeting, said local police official Bhim Dhakal.
"Police have had to respond with 20 rounds of tear gas and batons... to control the crowd and ensure a safe environment for discussions," Dhakal said.
In the Nuwakot district in central Nepal, a petrol bomb was thrown at Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat's convoy who was headed to his constituency for public consultations on the charter, said his press adviser Gajendra Bista. No one was injured.
Nepal is a landlocked country bordered to the north by China and to the south, east, and west by India located in South Asia with a population of about 27 million people. The mountainous north of Nepal has eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest.
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