KATHMANDU, Oct 9: At least a dozen CPN-Maoist cadres have sustained serious injuries after police crack down on their sit-in outside the prime minister´s official residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday morning.
The Mohan Baidya-led CPN-M cadres were staging protest against the recent cabinet decision to promote Nepal Army´s Colonel Raju Basnet as brigadier general. [break]
Basnet has been implicated in forced disappearances of 49 Maoist cadres from Bhairavnath battalion during the insurgency.
"The sit-in started around 8 am and police intervened injuring over a dozen of our friends,” Ek Raj Bhandari, chairman of the Association of Families of Fighters Disappeared by the State, Nepal, said talking to Republica Online over the phone.
Ishwor BK, Ambika Acharya and Dhiraj Khanal have sustained serious injuries in the incident, Bhandari informed. All the injured are undergoing treatment at Bir Hospital.
When police were raining batons on CPN-M protesters, Puja Khanal of the association who show allegiance to the mother party UCPN (Maoist), submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.
A cabinet meeting Thursday had promoted Colonel Basnet to the rank of brigadier general despite protest from rights groups and activists.
Temporary police protest causes negotiation at Police Office