More than 100 visually-impaired persons were arrested and several others injured as police intervened into their protest rally, demanding employment, in Kathmandu on Sunday.
Hundreds of visually-impaired persons joined a protest rally organised by Visually-impaired Persons’ Group which started from Bhrikuti Madap this afternoon but they were interrupted by the police when the rally arrived at Padmodaya Mod. Participants of the protest rally said police used excessive force to disrupt the peaceful rally.
Police ruthlessly beat up the demonstrators, injuring a number of participants. Two injured persons – Bhakta Gautam and Pratibha Lama – have been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, according to the members of the group.
The group has been demanding that the government offer jobs to 500 visually-impaired persons at the earliest and provide a monthly ‘unemployment allowance’ of Rs 2,000 to others.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Organisation of Nepal (HURON) in a statement condemned the police intervention into the visually-impaired persons’ peaceful rally and demanded that the arrested persons be freed immediately and unconditionally. nepalnews.com mk Mar 05 06