By IANS
Kathmandu : Even as Nepal's government heaved a sigh of relief as a group of ethnic protesters agreed to call off its week-long closure in the Terai plains from Saturday, two more protesting factions from the turbulent plains enforced a shutdown Friday.
The Terai, already reeling under a devastating flood, received a fresh blow with an armed group, the Madhesi Tigers, calling a two-day closure from Friday.
Though immediate details were not available about the protest, media reports said Siraha district in eastern Nepal, one of the epicentres of the escalating violence in the plains since January, had been hit with transport grinding to a halt and educational institutions and offices remaining closed.
A second group, the Tharu Kalyankari Sabha, also called a one-day closure of the Terai Friday, asking transporters not to ply in 23 districts in the plains.
The Tharu community of Nepal, who have a population of nearly 3 million, are among the most disadvantaged, having been bonded slaves till 2000 when the government abolished the kamaiya (bonded labour) custom.
Though the government says there are about 30,000 freed kamaiyas, the Sabha claims there are about 50,000 freed kamaiyas who have no means of livelihood.
After the kamaiyas began an agitation in the capital, the eight-party government signed an agreement with them this week, pledging to rehabilitate them within three months.
The Tharu Kalyankari Sabha said it was calling the Terai shutdown to demand an autonomous state for Tharus, rehabilitation of freed "kamaiyas" and proportionate representation in the constituent assembly election, scheduled to be held Nov 22.
On the eve of the double Terai closure, the cadre of a third Terai faction was killed in Rautahat district.
Vinod Mukhiya, a member of a group of former Maoists – the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha – was killed Thursday night. His party is blaming the murder on the Young Communist league, the militant youth wing of the Maoists.
Though the Maoists signed a peace pact with the ruling alliance and joined the government in April, there have been several revolts in their ranks with the formation of five breakaway factions.
The three splinters of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha are locked in a deadly internecine feud with the Maoists in the plains, where over 100 people have been killed since January.
One of them, the faction led by former senior Maoist leader Jay Krishna Goit, this month followed in the footsteps of his erstwhile comrades and wrote to the UN, asking for the world body's mediation in talks with the government.
The continuing turmoil in the Terai casts serious doubts about the government's ability to hold elections in November.
The fresh disruption comes on the eve of a third round of negotiations to be held between the government and the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, yet another dissenting group in the plains that is also becoming one of the most influential.
On Thursday, the government held talks with a fourth protesting group, the Chure Bhawar Ekta Samaj, and persuaded it to call off its week-long strike from Saturday after agreeing to release nine of its arrested leaders and compensate the kin of those killed in the Terai violence.
The capitulation is likely to cast a shadow on the talks with the Forum scheduled for Saturday since it accuses the government of not showing any flexibility towards its demands.