By IANS
Kathmandu : Nepal’s student crisis continued for the fifth day Friday with Maoist students calling a closure of colleges and universities in Kathmandu Valley and threatening stiffer measures if their arrested members were not freed by the end of the day.
The crisis was triggered after clashes between students loyal to the Maoists and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s party.
Himal Sharma, general secretary of the Maoist student union, warned of a nationwide shutdown of all educational institutions from Saturday if the over four dozen activists of his organisation were not released unconditionally.
Though police had freed 24 members Thursday, rebel students said 51 people are still in detention. Besides the student union, they include some members of the Maoists’ controversial youth wing, the Young Communist League (YCL).
The clash between the rebel students and members of Nepal Students Union (NSU), affiliated to Koirala’s Nepali Congress party, took a turn for the worse Wednesday when a legislator came under attack.
The rebel students had imposed a three-hour transport closure in the capital to pressure the government into releasing their members. The YCL, which had joined the fray, attacked the car of Som Prasad Pande, MP from the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, and tried to set it on fire while he was inside.
The incident created a furore in parliament Thursday, with MPs condemning the attack and asking the government to punish the guilty.
Though the NSU was scheduled to hold talks with the Maoist students Friday in a bid to defuse the tension, the meeting was called off after NSU leader Pradip Poudel was summoned by Koirala at his residence.
The trouble erupted Monday after the rebel students entered the hostel of an engineering college in Kathmandu and beat up the residents, mostly NSU supporters.
When the NSU began protest marches in the capital Tuesday, there were clashes between them and the rebel students, causing dozens of people to be injured.
The disruption comes at a time nearly 117,000 students are appearing for their school-leaving examination.
There have been reports of examinees facing hardship in reaching examination centres, especially in Mahottari district in the southern plains.
The student unrest comes with less than 100 days left for a crucial election that is being regarded as imperative for restoring peace in Nepal.
Nepal’s student organisations have a key role in national politics.
They played a major role in the uprising in April 2006 that forced King Gyanendra to end his 15-month regime formed after a coup and hand over power to the opposition coalition.