Nepal blocks 42 Indian TV channels
Cable TV operators in Nepal have blocked 42 Indian channels in protest against what they call an unofficial "blockade of goods" into the country.
The move comes after a former Maoist splinter party started a campaign against Indian movies and TV channels in Nepal.
The president of the Nepal Cable Television Association told BBC Nepali the "black-out will be indefinite". Sudhir Parajuli yesterday said they decided to shut down the broadcast of the Indian channels as "India has been intruding in the national sovereignty of Nepal," the PTI agency said.
A Kathmandu movie theatre stopped showing Indian movies two days ago, an employee said.
Nepal yesterday briefly detained 13 personnel of India's Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) who had "inadvertently" entered the country while chasing suspected smugglers near Jhapa district, bordering Bihar.
Nepal's Armed Police Force personnel deployed at the Border Account Post at Kechana Village in Jhapa district, bordering Bihar's Kishanganj district, arrested the SSB jawans around 6:30 am, according to Nepal Police sources. Four SSB jawans were carrying modern rifles, they said.
All 13 SSB personnel were later released after being briefly kept at the APF camp in Kechana.
Meanwhile, Nepalese police arrested 38 protesters yesterday for trying to enforce a strike against neighbouring India.
"We have arrested 38 people for trying to block roads and vandalise vehicles," police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam told AFP.
Protests at the border over Nepal's new constitution have led to crippling fuel shortages in the landlocked Himalayan nation, while medicines are also running short.
On Saturday, Maoist said they set on fire a vehicle belonging to the Indian embassy here. However, both police and embassy officials refuted the claim.
Party members claimed that they burnt the vehicle and smashed its window panes to protest India's blockade of road transport of supplies of food items and other commodities to Nepal.
"We had earlier warned not to ride Indian vehicles in Nepal, otherwise the angry people can do anything. Modi government did not take this issue seriously and that is why the people are angry. This anger will convert into a struggle. This will neither benefit India nor Modiji," said Khadga Bahadur Vishwakarma, spokesperson of Nepal Communist Party Maoist.
The vehicle was parked at the Indian embassy premises here and no one was seated in it. The Indian embassy said the vehicle belonged to one of its employees.
Both officials and police refuted the claim of the CPN-Maoist, led by Netra Bikram Chand, and said the vehicle caught fire due to a technical fault.
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