(Updated with details at 1815 NST, 1230 GMT)
KATHMANDU, March 18: Students belonging to the CPN-UML-affiliated All Nepal National Free Students´ Union (ANNFSU) and Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Independent Students´ Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) clashed in front of the Nepal Law Campus at around 3:30 in the afternoon Wednesday, leaving two injured. [break]
Nationwide elections of Free Students´ Union (FSU) in colleges are due on Thursday.
Those injured in the clash are Ram Hari Tripathi, election candidate from ANNISU-R at Nepal Law Campus, and Padam Hitang from the ANNFSU. They are undergoing treatment at Kathmandu Model Hospital, according to Gunaraj Acharya, ANNFSU candidate for President at the Law Campus.
Situation at the Exhibition Road, where five colleges -- Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus, Nepal Law Campus, Bishwabhasha Campus, Nepal Balmiki Campus and Shiksha Campus -- situate remains tense with two rival groups of students gathered in confrontational mood along two sides of the busy road.
Large number of police personnel are deployed to avert any possible clash between the rival unions.
The clash ensued at the Law Campus following Prachanda Pokharel, who had filed his nomination for the post of president at the Campus as an ANNFSU dissident, issued a statement saying that he withdrew his candidacy and joined the Maoist student union along with his friends.
Navaraj Thapaliya, a UML student leader, tore down the statement saying that it was just a part of propaganda against ANNFSU as Pokharel was not even a member of the UML student union.
After that Maoist students padlocked the college offices and beat up a UML student, Hitang, and later Maoist student, Tripathi, was attacked.
Maoist students accused ANNFSU Chairperson Ram Kumari Jhankri of coordinating the attack while she said she just happened to arrive there at the time of incident. "This is just a part of deliberate attempts to derail the elections after they sensed certainty of our victory," she said.
