Ground Report

Kathmandu, 20 December, 2009: From early morning the major cities of Nepal were high in alert with security personnel running around. The Agitators were seen very active chanting anti government slogans and vandalizing public property. According to the spokesperson of Nepal Police, the updated current status of damage shows 25 vehicles vandalized by agitators in and around the valley where around 70 protesters were taken in control by the police. The injured list highlights six policemen including a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dilip Chaudhary, three parliamentarians and dozens of agitators. The Unified CPN (Maoist) had declared a 3 days closure program starting with a torch rally on Saturday evening protesting against suppressing the people’s mandate and their legitimacy status. The security conditions were completely tightened in and around high profile place. Vehicular movements were absolutely halted during the day and people were seen stranded at different places. The closure program was declared for 3 days starting from December 20-22, 2009. Speaking to a press conference on Saturday evening Maoist supreme Pushpa Kamal Dahal said, “we have been compelled to act like this, our country and the people demand a new revolution, a new vision where our party has always supported the values of people’s choice and their voices. From the past few months we have been peacefully trying to get the support of other political parties but they completely neglected us and in fact they have forced us to take this step. “ He further stated that the unconstitutional move of the president in reinstating the Chief of Army staff (CoAS) and to rule in was completely unethical and is against the mandate of people’s voice. The political parties are more or less interested in power politics and are more focused in playing game rather than creating solution. As the ruling parties only appears serious about ending the deadlock but not about solving the problem.