Three persons have died in Monday’s Saptari incident where police opened fire to contain the aggravated cadres of Madhesi Morcha who were in a bid to foil CPN-UML’s programme that was being held as a part of its Mechi-Mahakali awareness call campaign.The Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed the fatalities.Security personnel resorted to firing after aggravated supporters of Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha (SLMM) were a great unruly bid to foil the Mechi-Mahakali campaign of CPN-UML scheduled in the district headquarters Rajbiraj at present.Police said the protesters who were earlier demonstrating from some 100 meters away started making efforts to enter the venue thereby propelling security personnel to open fire. The SLMM cadres picketed the campaign venue in Gajendra Narayan Singh Industrial Area in the district. The programme originally scheduled to be held at Raj Rangashala of Rajbiraj was later moved to Industrial Area with a view to averting possible clashes with the regional parties. On the other hand, Morcha local leaders have alleged that UML mobilised its cadres your past crowd to incite assault.Police had earlier lobbed tear gas shells to contain the angry mob of Morcha cadres. Later they resorted to taking pictures. The clash between police and SLMM cadres has left over 14 of protesters injured. Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital source informed that more than 12 of protesters have been injured and among them four are serious. Gravely injured 11 people also been referred to Biratnagar and Dharan for further health care. It is learnt the violence took place after UML concluded its programme. The Morcha cadres got more excited and violent when UML Chairman KP Oli was addressing the assembly. UML leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, Lal Babu Yadav, Satya Narayan Mandal, were among other people to address the meeting. UML leaders including Chairman Oli were safely escorted out of programme venue amidst tight reliability. The tension escalated throughout the programme.Throughout the day, various places of Saptari district remained tense as Morcha cadres took to the streets burning tyres at major thoroughfares.The district administration said it had deployed around 1,500 security personnel in view of potential clashes.
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