By IANS
Kathmandu : Tension simmered in a frontier district in northern Nepal Monday as at least two dozen people were injured after Maoists went on the rampage, attacking the chief government officer and clashing with security forces.
District authorities had to clamp night curfew in Charikot town, near the Tibet border, Sunday to quell the violence that caused panic in the area.
Though curfew was lifted at 5 a.m. Monday, tension continued as police arrested at least 17 Maoists and the rebels warned they would begin yet another round of protests if the detainees were not freed.
The violence stemmed from the Maoists' old animosity towards King Gyanendra, who had seized power with an army-backed bloodless coup two years ago and tried to put down the communist insurgency by force.
Taking advantage of the king's ouster last year and the Maoists joining the government, the Young Communist League (YCL), the controversial youth wing of the rebels, recently humiliated a municipal officer for having supported the king.
The YCL publicly blackened the face of Sundar Prakash Khadka, the official who had incurred their wrath, a treatment commonly meted out to public offenders in Nepal.
However, the local administration swung into action and began legal proceedings against the YCL leader who had led the attack.
At this, dozens of enraged YCL cadres stormed the office of the chief district administration officer Uddhav Bahadur Thapa Sunday, demanding that the case against their comrades be withdrawn.
They stoned Thapa's office, clashed with security forces and assaulted the official.
Police fired teargas shells to disperse the mob and nearly two dozen people were injured in the scuffles.
The attack on a senior government official comes close on the heels of two rounds of protests lodged by civil servants, who have warned they would go on an indefinite strike if the government failed to ensure their safety.
Civil servants have been repeatedly assaulted and intimidated by Maoists as well as ethnic protesters in the Terai plains.
By Monday, police had arrested 17 Maoist cadres, four of them from another district, Kavre, where they had fled after the violence.
However, the rebels warned the administration that they would begin fresh protests if their men were not released and injured cadres given free medical treatment.
The violence comes even as Nepal's MPs as well as international agencies have been expressing growing concern at the continuation of violence by the YCL even after the Maoists signed a peace pact.
They have warned the government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala that free and fair elections would not be possible if the violence continued.
Nepal goes to the polls on Nov 22 to decide if it should keep its king or become a republic and the election is considered to be a key step in restoring peace and stability in the unrest-torn kingdom.
Elections have already been postponed once in June due to the fragile security situation and there are fears that the government may not be able to hold the exercise in November either.