By IANS
Kathmandu : Even as Nepal's government claimed to have completed a round of successful negotiations with the biggest group of ethnic protesters from the Terai region, another faction from the plains began enforcing a three-day shutdown from Monday, demanding the release of their arrested leaders.
The Madhesi Mukti Tigers, a little-known band that began to grab attention since this year with a spate of abductions and robberies, said it was calling a three-day "Madhes bandh" – a closure in nearly 22 districts in the plains, to demand the release of detained leaders and withdrawal of criminal charges against them.
The frontier district of Rautahat, which saw unprecedented violence this year with 29 people dying and has remained volatile, was hit by the closure along with its adjoining areas, government sources said.
The Madhesi Mukti Tigers is an armed group, unlike the biggest organisation in the plains, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, which says it doesn't believe in violence.
Though the Forum's mass meetings in the plains at times ended in violence due to clashes with the Maoists, the group has registered itself as a political party to take part in elections scheduled for November.
The Madhesi movement demanding greater rights for the plains community, many of who are of Indian origin, and an autonomous Madhesi state for the diaspora, gathered momentum this year under the banner of the Forum, headed by former lawyer Upendra Yadav, once regarded as being close to the Maoists.
The Forum began calling a series of protests in the plains, including shutdowns and a blockade of main trading points, forcing the government to concede their demand for a federal form of government.
Last week, a team of three ministers held the first round of formal talks with Yadav in the Terai town of Janakpur to reach an understanding for peace and stability in the plains.
However, the Terai plains have been the breeding ground of ethnic armed groups, with at least nine factions raising the banner of revolt and making peace remain still a distant dream.
Besides the new dissenters, fresh protests are in the offing from a Terai group affiliated to one of the major parties in the ruling coalition.
The Madhesi Rastriya Mukti Morcha is a sister organisation of the Maoists, a dominant partner in the eight-party government. Minister of Soil and Forest Conservation Matrika Prasad Yadav leads the Morcha.
The organisation has announced it would start a series of protest programmes from June 9, culminating in a Madhesi shutdown on July 9.
The Maoist group is demanding an independent investigation into the Rautahat violence, compensation for the families of those killed in the plains and the formation of an autonomous Madhesi government in Terai.
The month-long protest is regarded as a move by the Maoists to counter the influence of the Forum.