A 32-year-old man from Ananda Bazaar of Punarbas Municipality-8 in Kanchanpur district died when India’s Seema Sashastra Bal (SSB) allegedly opened fire on locals on Nepal-India border on Thursday. The victim has been identified as Gobinda Gautam of Punarbas Municipality-8. He was pronounced dead at CP Hospital, Dhangadi, said police. Tension was running high along the border since morning over the construction of a culvert on the Nepali side by locals. A row over culvert construction had continued since long, as the area where the structure was being built is said to be disputed with the Indian side claiming it not to be on Nepali territory.
Clashes that erupted earlier on Thursday turned nasty and violent later. Six other locals have been injured, one seriously, in the clash. Locals claimed that they protested after SSB personnel entered the Nepali territory on Wednesday night and beat them indiscriminately.<div style="position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom Tension reached its peak after SSB personnel and locals from the bordering Indian settlement had a dispute with Nepalis. The locals from Indian side and SSB personnel claimed that “certain Indian territory had been encroached upon while constructing the culvert by the Nepalis”. Punarbas locals claimed that “our own security personnel failed to take action even after the SSB opened fire”.
The family of deceased Gautam has warned that they will not receive the body unless the guilty SSB personnel are punished and the victim is declared a martyr. Security personnel from Nepal Police and the APF in large numbers were deployed in the area. Later in the evening, officials from two sides reached a five-point agreement to settle the border dispute—the main cause of Thursday’s scuffle.
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