Nepal police kill 3 in fresh anti-charter clashes

asiaone.com ^ | Thursday, Jan 21, 2016 | afp

[BenLurkin]

Clashes broke out in the southeastern district of Morang Thursday afternoon when hundreds of protesters armed with batons, knives and petrol bombs tried to disrupt a meeting of activists from the ruling CPN-UML party.

Demonstrators from the Madhesi ethnic minority, mainly from the southern plains, have led a months-long blockade of a key border crossing, causing a crippling shortage of fuel and other vital supplies across the landlocked country.In a bid to break the deadlock, parties tabled a bill to amend the constitution and increase the Madhesi presence in government bodies through proportional representation.

But protesters say the bill, currently under discussion in parliament, is incomplete and does not address their main demand to revise the federal state borders laid out in the charter.The constitution, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to cement peace and bolster Nepal's transformation to a democratic republic after decades of political instability and a 10-year Maoist insurgency.

[BenLurkin]

The ruling party is the CPN-UML, which stands for "Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)"

[DoughtyOne]

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LINK to Caucus 01/21/2016

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