NEPALI police cleared protesters from a key checkpoint on the border with India on Monday (November 2) in an attempt to end a border blockade that has badly damaged Nepali relations with the country's big southern neighbour.
Nepal has faced an acute fuel crisis for more than a month since protesters in the lowland south, angered that a new constitution fails to reflect their interests, prevented supply trucks from entering from India.
Many in Nepal see India's hand in the protests, although New Delhi denies any role. With the Himalayan nation of 28 million still recovering from its worst earthquake on record, the government has turned to China for assistance.
Police cleared protesters who were staging a sit-in on a "friendship" bridge across the border that is on the main supply route to the capital Kathmandu.
"No one was hurt in the incident although five people were arrested," Chetab Raj Ghimire, a chief district official, told reporters.
A police official said that 219 empty trucks had been cleared to return to India but that none had entered the country from the Indian side of the border.
The protesters had gone into the town of Birgunj where they were burning tyres. "We have fired a few tear gas shells and mildly baton charged the protesters," the police official said.
Protests over a new constitution turned violent in August, leading to more than 40 deaths, as southern plains dwellers objected to seeing their lands divided and included in several federal states dominated by mountain communities.
The constitution was nonetheless adopted on September 20, paving the way for the formation of a new government headed by Prime Minister KP Oli, who has so far failed to calm passions that have paralysed economic and political life.
A Kathmandu woman sits on top of an empty cooking gas
