Violence 'escalating' in southern Nepal

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Communal unrest in southern Nepal is worsening and authorities need to act quickly to prevent all-out violence in the ethnically tense region, police and rights activists said Friday.

The unrest in the Indian border district of Kapilvastu erupted after the murder this week of local Muslim politician Mohid Khan, who headed an anti-Maoist vigilante group during Nepal's civil war.

Police said the clashes in the impoverished Terai lowlands had left at least 22 people dead, while Maoists accused the country's embattled monarchy -- which they are trying to oust -- of stirring up the unrest.

"People are being terrorised. The attacks are taking the shape of communal violence," district police deputy superintendent Kuber Kadayat told AFP from the area, around 230 kilometres (145 miles) southwest of Kathmandu.

"The death toll could rise still further as police are yet to reach remote villages where there have been reports of violent clashes in the past few days," said another local official, Narendra Dahal.

News reports said the warring parties in the area had divided along political, religious and ethnic lines.

"There was a tussle between Khan's supporters and Maoists because of past antagonism," the Nepali Times wrote Friday.

It said violence had also broken out between Pahadis, or hill people who have settled in the Terai, and ethnic Mahadhesi natives of the lowlands. The paper said there was also "potential this would turn into a Hindu-Muslim riot."

The leader of Nepal's former rebel Maoists blamed "regressive elements" -- a term used to describe supporters of the embattled monarchy -- for provoking the bloodshed.

"Our party strongly condemns the deliberate conspiracy of regressive and reactionary forces," Prachanda said in a statement calling on "all people including Hindus, Muslims, Mahadhesi (natives) and Pahadis to unite together."

The ultra-leftists quit the government earlier this week and have threatened mass street protests and work stoppages to push for the immediate abolition of the Himalayan nation's monarchy.

Under the terms of last November's peace deal, that issue was supposed to be decided after a popular vote scheduled for November 22 -- which the Maoists have also vowed to disrupt.

"There is a danger that regressive forces are conspiring to mobilise the army by using the communal riots as as excuse," Prachanda claimed.

At least 100 people have been killed in the Terai region this year, clouding a peace deal reached late last year between the government and the Maoists.

Around a dozen armed ethnic groups have emerged who say they are fighting for greater autonomy for the Terai, home to around half of Nepal's 27 million people. They have long been sidelined by Nepal's Pahadi-dominated elite.

The head of a leading local rights group said the situation was a "serious human tragedy."

"The government has not been able to maintain law and order," said Kundan Aryal, general secretary of the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC).

"Both Muslim and Hindu community people have been affected and we think some criminal elements are taking advantage of the situation. There is a danger that communal disturbances could spread in other areas if the government doesn't take prompt action," said Aryal, who visited the area Thursday.

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