Thousands of Nepali Hindus Protest

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Thousands of Nepali Hindus Protest

 

NOTE HOW MEDIA COVERAGE ATTEMPTS TO TIE UNRELATED ATTACKS ON

HOSPITALS TO THE PRO-HINDU PROTESTS. ALSO NOTE THE UNNAMED BUDDHISTS

THAT ARE SUPPOSEDLY SUPPORTIVE OF A SECULAR NEPAL. IF TRUE, ITS

IRONIC SINCE TIBETAN BUDDHISTS HAVE HAD TO FLEE NEPAL BY THE

THOUSANDS SINCE THE RISE OF MAOIST TERROR STRIKES.

V

 

Thousands of people in southern Nepal have been protesting against a

parliamentary decision to declare Nepal a secular, rather than a

Hindu kingdom.

Nepal Hindus in secular protest 

By Charles Haviland

BBC News, Kathmandu 

Hindus form 80% of the Nepalese population

Thousands of people in southern Nepal have been protesting against a

parliamentary decision to declare Nepal a secular, rather than a

Hindu kingdom.

The mainly Hindu protestors in the southern town of Birgunj have

declared a general strike in their area.

 

Eyewitnesses in Birgunj say the town has been closed down by an

alliance of local Hindu groups, with some 6,000 marching in protest.

 

The country has been officially a Hindu kingdom for the last 40

years.

 

Divided opinions

 

With the symbolism associated with Hinduism, people are waving

saffron-coloured flags, wielding tridents and shouting the name of

the popular deity Ram.

 

They have also burned copies of a newspaper they accuse of favouring

secularism.

 

Birgunj lies on the Indian border and local journalists say the

protests have taken on the flavour of Hindu nationalist rallies more

common in India.

 

Nepal is at least 80% Hindu. It has a tradition of religious

tolerance and mixing, but also strong discrimination along caste

lines.

 

Last week's declaration that it be secular is dividing opinion.

 

Organisations representing indigenous ethnic groups, many of whom are

Buddhist, have welcomed it, so has a body speaking for the tiny

Christian minority.

 

But some Hindu groups have expressed outrage, while others have

questioned why change is necessary, given the country's general lack

of inter-communal violence.

 

In a separate development, doctors across Nepal have gone on strike,

protesting at the severe vandalising of two hospitals in different

parts of the country.

 

In each case, large crowds alleged that doctors negligence had caused

the deaths of patients.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5015456.stm

 

Nepal: Appeasing Maoists

May 25, 2006 14 40  GMT

 

The Nepalese government has freed 467 Maoist rebels from prison and

appointed a three-person negotiation team in ongoing efforts to end

the country's 10-year insurgency, the Nepalese government said May

25. The Maoists said May 23 they would not negotiate until the

government released at least 1,300 fighters. Hindus in the southern

industrial town of Birgunj on May 25 protested the government's May

18 decision to bow to Maoist demands and declare Nepal a secular

state.

http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?

selected=Situation%20Reports&sitrep=1&id=266716

 

 

Pro-Hindu protests in Nepal

J. HEMANTH

 

A man is arrested by the police in Kathmandu on Wednesday for

vandalising the Everest Nursing Home over the death of a patient.

(Reuters) 

Kathmandu, May 24: Hundreds of Nepalis in the southern town of

Birgunj protested against the plan to turn Nepal into a secular

state.

 

The activists, who belonged to the World Hindu Federation (WHF) and

Shiv Sena Nepal, organised rallies and blocked the Tribhuvan highway

on the Bara-Parsa industrial belt near the Indian border. They also

burnt copies of a newspaper which supported the parliamentary

declaration to turn the Himalayan nation into a secular state.

 

The protesters enforced a day-long bandh in Birgunj and Kalaiya

bazaar. They also blocked traffic at Gandak, Parwanipur and Jitpur

intersections of the Tribhuvan highway which leads into India. The

protesters burnt tyres and shouted slogans in support of Hinduism and

ridiculed the parties for daring to convert the world's only Hindu

state into a secular one.

 

The WHF, which is headed by Bharat Kesar Sinha, a close aide of King

Gyanendra, has supported the monarch during his 15-month reign which

ended last month after the pro-democracy movement.

 

In fact, as the pro-democracy protests gained in momentum, Gyanendra

attended the WHF silver jubilee celebrations in Birgunj early last

month.

 

Both the WHF and Shiv Sena plan to continue with the protests in

Birgunj and other towns tomorrow. Nearly 75 per cent of Nepal's 26

million people are Hindus.

 

The rest are Muslims, Christians and Animists, who believe that

plants, animals and natural things have a living soul.

 

Maoist demand

 

The Maoist rebels have said that they will join an interim

administration only after the dissolution of Nepal's re-instated

parliament and government, a rebel negotiator said today.

 

"It is part of our roadmap that the present parliament, constitution

and the government should be dissolved and replaced by an interim

government and constitution," said Dinanath Sharma, part of a three-

member rebel team which is in Kathmandu for peace talks with the new

government.

 

No date has been set for the talks.

 

The rebels, which supported the pro-democracy protests organised by

the seven major political parties, have no representation in

parliament.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060525/asp/foreign/story_6267021.asp

 

Strike by Hindus shuts down Nepal town

BINAJ GURUBACHARYA

Associated Press

KATMANDU, Nepal - A peaceful strike called by Hindu groups to protest

parliament's move to declare Nepal a secular state closed down a

southern border town Thursday and threatened to block imports of

goods from neighboring India.

 

Markets, schools and businesses were shut in Birgunj, 100 miles south

of the capital, Katmandu.

 

Birgunj lies on Nepal's border with India and is the main route for

goods, supplies and fuel imported from Nepal's southern neighbor. But

on Thursday, the town's highways were deserted.

 

Navin Ghimire, the chief government administrator in the area, said

security was beefed up but that there had been no reports of any

violence.

 

Strike organizers said they were protesting a clause in a resolution

passed by parliament last week stipulating that Nepal no longer be

formally known as a Hindu country.

 

"Our protest is against Parliament removing Nepal's status as a Hindu

nation. We will continue our protest until the decision is reversed,"

said Umesh Patel, a strike organizer and coordinator for the Religion

Awareness Front, a body representing several Hindu groups in Birgunj.

 

There is a feeling of brotherhood among the people because Nepal is a

Hindu nation. But parliament has destroyed all that," Patel

said. "The decision was neither necessary nor justifiable."

 

Nepal's constitution, written in 1990, declared the Himalayan nation

a Hindu kingdom and more than 85 percent of the country's 27 million

people are Hindus.

 

Last month, weeks of protests forced King Gyanendra to give up the

powers he seized last year, reinstate parliament and appoint Girija

Prasad Koirala as the prime minister.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14661751.htm

 

Hindu groups block roads in southern Nepal 

Kathmandu, May 25: Hindu groups opposed to the government's decision

to declare Nepal a secular state today blocked roads and burnt copies

of a state-run newspaper during a strike called by them in the

southern industrial town of Birgunj.

 

Transport services were disrupted in Birgunj, which lies on Nepal's

border with India, after the Hindu groups blocked roads to protest

against the government's decision, witnesses said.

 

They also burnt copies of 'The Kathmandu Post' because it carried an

article that supported Nepal's renaming as a secular state instead of

a Hindu kingdom, the paper reported.

 

It said they stopped a vehicle carrying 1,700 copies of the newspaper

and burnt all of them.

 

In a separate development, all medical services, except emergency,

were closed across Nepal today in protest against attack on health

institutions over the death of a patient in a Kathmandu nursing home

due to shortage of oxygen cylinders.

 

Angry over the patient's death earlier this week, a mob vandalised

the private hospital the person died. The hospital management later

announced Rs 2.5 lakh compensation to the son of the deceased.

 

Nepal Medical Association (NMA) had called for closing down all

medical services except emergency across the country demanding

investigation and action against culprits involved attacks on Lumbini

Zonal Hospital in western Nepal and Everest Nursing Home in

Kathmandu.

 

It also appealed to the civil society to help the government to take

action against the culprits. Bureau Report

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=297859&sid=SAS

 

Hindus protest Nepal's secular move

KATHMANDU, Nepal, May 25 (UPI) -- Thousands of Nepalese Hindus have

marched in the streets to demand that Nepal be declared a Hindu

nation once again. In the southern industrial town of Birgunj all the

shops were closed Wednesday as the local Hindu community protested

against the House of Representatives' decision to change Nepal to a

secular state, Nepalnew.com reported Thursday.

 

Until May 18, Nepal was the only Hindu kingdom in the world.

Nepal's ethnic groups, as well as Buddhists and Christians, have

welcomed the proclamation, saying it will end discrimination.

However, local lawyers have questioned the legal status of the

decision. More than 80 percent of Nepal's 27 million people are

Hindus.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060525-055440-9819r