Nepal minister under fire as Terai toll climbs to 15-The Times of India

KATHMANDU: The leaders of Nepal's new Madhes agitation on Saturday said home minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, the chief government negotiator during talks with Maoist guerrillas, have to quit before they started talks with the government - a demand that received fresh impetus with another protester dying due to police firing, taking the toll to 15.

Dipendra Shah was killed out right and about a dozen protesters injured, six of them seriously, when police opened fire on them in Birgunj town in Parsa district. Police said the demonstrators had ventured out defying day-time curfew and begin attacking government offices.

Meanwhile, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, a socio-political organisation spearheading the new movement for an autonomous Madhes state in the Terai plains for people of Indian origin, said it would not come for talks unless the government fulfilled three pre-conditions.

Upendra Yadav, a former lawyer who is heading the Forum, said the home minister must take responsibility for the deaths caused due to police firing as well as a communal riot in midwestern Nepalgunj town after Xmas, when plains people's shops and houses were looted with the connivance of security forces.

"The home minister misused the state machinery," Yadav said. "Seventeen of our people have died and over 400 have been wounded. To create a conducive atmosphere for talks, Sitaula has to quit."

Besides Sitaula's head, the protesters also want action against the Maoists.