Sanghiya Samajwadi Forum Nepal Chairman Upendra Yadav, who is also spearheading the Madhes agitation, has condemned the Rangeli incident in Morang district on Thursday, in which three people lost their lives in police firing.

“Our party protests and condemns the police oppression on a peaceful protest of Madhesi Morcha,” reads the statement issued by Yadav today.

In the statement, Yadav has said that holding CPN-UML aligned Youth Association Nepal’s (YAN) programme in a sensitive place, despite Madhesi Morcha’s refusal, was government’s ploy to foil Madhes agitation by directing it towards communal confrontation and weakening the Madhes protest.

He also claimed that Rangeli incident makes it clear that the government is hatching a conspiracy to deny rights to Madhesi, Adivasi, Janajati, Khas, Tharu, women, among other marginalised and oppressed communities.

“The government’s move to suppress the demonstrators, instead of making way out by holding talks and amending constitution, has raised doubts that the government is bent on foiling the talks,” said Yadav in the statement.