The Tharuhat/Tharuwan Joint Struggle Committee (TJSC) on Monday announced fresh programmes of protest demanding separate provinces for the Tharu community.

During a press meet at Reporter’s Club, Tharu leaders said the protest would continue until the government addresses their demands. “The government has completely ignored our demands, leaving us no choice but to press our agendas from the streets,” said Aman Lal Modi, a Tharu lawmaker from the UCPN (Maoist).

Tharu strongholds in the West, the epicentre of the ongoing protest, have remained calm after the government mobilised the Army in Kailali following the killings of eight police personnel and a child. TJSC—a loose alliance of Tharu Lawmakers’ Unified Struggle Committee, Tharu Kalyankari Sabha and Tharu NGOs—is unhappy particularly with the delineation of federal states that, according to it, attempts to marginalise the Tharus.

Tharu leaders have demanded a Tharuhat province comprising Tarai districts west of Chitwan.