Protest erupts in Nepal over shooting death on border

Indian border guards killed a Nepali citizen over a local dispute in a rare shooting at the border, Nepal’s government said, prompting anti-India protests in the area and in the national capital yesterday.India and Nepal share a 1,751km (1,094 miles) long and open border and thousands of people cross over each day to work and trade, but Nepali politicians have often accused India of meddling in its affairs.Dozens of people were protesting over a damaged culvert in Nepal’s Anandabazaar near the border with India on Thursday when Indian border guards opened fire, killing a 25-year-old man, a government statement said.An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said India’s border guards had opened an inquiry and had asked Nepal to provide a forensic and post mortem report on the victim.“The Government of Nepal is being requested through diplomatic channels to share post-mortem and forensic reports to facilitate the process,” ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Gopal Baglay said. The MEA said officials from the two countries had met and agreed to take steps to maintain calm.But yesterday, fresh protests erupted in Anandabazaar, which is 477km (298 miles) southwest of Kathmandu, with an even bigger group of Nepalis attacking a local government office, home ministry spokesman Bal Krishna Panthi said.“The area is tense,” a police official in the region said.Another group of demonstrators tried to march on the Indian embassy in Kathmandu in protest over the shooting, but were stopped by police, leading to scuffles, police official Chhabi Lal said.A dispute erupted in the border area after Nepal-India pillar number 200 went missing and both sides staked claim and counter-claim over the area in no-man’s land.The Nepali side was constructing a culvert in an area that is claimed by India. The situation became tense on Thursday after India’s SSB personnel, who were accompanied by residents of the Indian border town of Basahi, allegedly fired in the air.Nepali residents said the SSB personnel contended that Indian territory was being transgressed upon in the digging for the culvert.Nepal’s ties with India were strained towards the end of 2015 and into last year after it blamed India for tacitly supporting a months-long blockade on fuel and goods by Indian-origin plainspeople who are opposed to Nepal’s constitution.