Tension ran high in front of Nepali Congress headquarters Sanepa, Lalitpur on Sunday after cadres of Nepal Students’ Union, the student wing of the party, clashed following a dispute over setting the age bar to become a student leader.

The two factions of the union, who had gathered to pile pressure on the party leadership to endorse the amended party statute, hurled stones at each other.

The faction led by student leader Kundan Kafle has been demanding that there should be an age limit of 32 years to contest in the election of the party’s student union, while the other faction under former student union president Nain Singh Mahar has been opposing the age limit criteria for membership, saying there should not be any provision of age bar.

According to Uttam Saud, a leader close to the Mahar faction, students supporting the age limit criteria attacked students who were staging a silent sit-in demanding that the party scrap the provision of age bar for student leadership.

The clash between the opposite factions ensued outside the party office when party leaders were holding informal meetings in the run-up to a Central Working Committee meeting slated for 11 am Sunday.

Police said the two sides hurled water bottles at each other before resorting to a violent exchange of stones and bricks.

After the situation turned tense, police personnel intervened and charged batons to take the situation under control. A journalist and few students were injured, sources said. Among the injured, condition of Jitendra Chhetri is said to be critical.

Photos: Biju Maharjan