The Colombo-based South Asians for Human Rights has concluded that the four-month long blockade of Nepal by India flouted several bilateral agreements between Nepal and India and international treaties and conventions on the rights of a landlocked country.

Releasing its report on Thursday, the SAHR stated that the events of the blockade brought to the fore the plight of land-locked countries and their dependence

on neighbours.

“It’s a matter of concern that the international community did not do more to ensure that Nepal’s rights as a land-locked country were not violated. It also raised questions about India’s influence on political developments in Nepal,” it said.

Expressing displeasure at some clauses of the new constitution, the Madhes-based parties had halted vehicular movement, including across the Nepal-India border, since September last year.

The rights group also suggested that the Nepal government could have, and should have, viewed the Madhesis’ protest as a political problem and engaged in a constructive dialogue with all the forces to work out an acceptable solution.

The use of force on the protesters, which led to nearly 60 deaths, had further alienated the Madhesi people from the political process, it noted.