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Nepal Maoists delay 5 day strike after appeals
Nepal`s Maoist rebels have postponed a five-day nationwide strike scheduled to begin Tuesday until later this month after appeals from students and lawmakers, police sources and human rights activists said.
Nepal's Maoist rebels have postponed a five-day nationwide strike scheduled to begin Tuesday until later this month after appeals from students and lawmakers, police sources and human rights activists said.
The Maoists will instead hold their strike from April 22 to 26, they said Monday.
Student unions had asked the rebels to delay the protest because more than 250,000 high school students are this week taking final exams. Lawmakers have called on the Maoists to scrap the strike altogether, and the government has threatened that anyone promoting the strike could be shot on sight.
The Maoists, who have been fighting since 1996 to topple the constitutional monarchy, said the protest was to put pressure on the government to accept their demands, in particular that a constituent assembly be convened to redraft the constitution. The rebels are also demanding that India withdraw its troop presence in Nepal's far northwestern Kalapani area dating from the 1962 Indo-China border war.
And they want to scrap the 1950 Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty, which gives India major economic and political leverage over its smaller neighbour. More than 2,700 people have been killed since the start of the Maoists' "people's war."
About a third of the deaths have occurred since the rebels broke a four-month ceasefire in late November.
Bureau Report
Student unions had asked the rebels to delay the protest because more than 250,000 high school students are this week taking final exams. Lawmakers have called on the Maoists to scrap the strike altogether, and the government has threatened that anyone promoting the strike could be shot on sight.
The Maoists, who have been fighting since 1996 to topple the constitutional monarchy, said the protest was to put pressure on the government to accept their demands, in particular that a constituent assembly be convened to redraft the constitution. The rebels are also demanding that India withdraw its troop presence in Nepal's far northwestern Kalapani area dating from the 1962 Indo-China border war.
And they want to scrap the 1950 Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty, which gives India major economic and political leverage over its smaller neighbour. More than 2,700 people have been killed since the start of the Maoists' "people's war."
About a third of the deaths have occurred since the rebels broke a four-month ceasefire in late November.
Bureau Report