Kailali remained tense on Friday due to sporadic clashes between Tharuhat protesters and Undivided Far-West supporters at Durgauli. The clashes ensued after Tharuhat protesters obstructed motorcycles of the opposing group.

Police said one of the protesters was injured in the clash. Dr Narendra Khanal of Tikapur Hospital, however, said around a dozen of protesters were treated in the health facility.

DSP Dhana Bahadur Kathayat of Area Police Office in Tikapur said security personnel lobbed dozens of teargas canisters to bring the situation under control. The enraged Undivided Far-West group also torched a motorcycle in Tikapur bazaar.

Tharuhat protesters also thrashed Kailali FM Managing Director Nabaraj Khanal in Joshipur area. Khanal, who sustained injuries all over his body, was riding a motorcycle home after purchasing medicine for his mother.

In Sunsari, Dharan remained closed due to a banda called by Sanghiya Samajwadi Forum Nepal after a protester, Rajiv Raut, was shot dead by police at Bhardaha in Saptari on Tuesday. The party has demanded that Raut be declared a martyr, his family be compensated and the guilty be brought to justice.

Janakpur also remained closed on Friday owing to protests against state demarcation.

In western Nepal, protests have continued while separate outfits have put forth various, and often conflicting, demands. In hilly districts, including Rolpa, people have demanded a Magarat province.

People demanding a separate federal state in the Karnali region, meanwhile, withdrew their protest programme in Surkhet.

Protests of Madhes-based parties, which began one and a half weeks ago, continued in Banke and Bardiya. Despite protesters allowing the resumption of schools in Banke, academic institutions in district headquarters were affected to sporadic clashes.

In Siraha, protesters did not even allow ambulances and press vehicles to operate.

Curfew in Bhairahawa

Some protesters tried to vandalise a police station at Bangai along the Bhairahawa-Lumbini road on Friday. Protesters also torched a motorcycle and vandalised Maryadapur Police Station.

Security personnel fired six rounds of bullets into the air to take the situation under control. Chief District Officer Bishnu Prasad Paudel said they arrested 18 protesters involved in the incident. “Some protesters are still involved in vandalism,” Paudel said, adding that a curfew will be clamped in from 9pm to 4am on Friday.

Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha and Tharuhat supporters have enforced a banda in the area for the past one week to protest the six-state federal set-up.

Meanwhile, the body of a protester, who drowned in the Dandakhola river at Behaliya while being chased by police on Thursday, was found on Friday. SP Rajendra Dhakal said the deceased is dentified as 19-year-old Sunil Yadav of Lumbini Cultural Municipality. Yadav who did not know how to swim drowned in the river while running away from police, his relatives said.

(With inputs from our district correspondents)