Nepal police fire on anti-gov't protesters

KATHMANDU, Jan 22 (Reuters) Police fired at anti-government protesters in southeast Nepal today, in growing unrest that threatens to derail a peace process aimed at ending a decade-old civil war.

Witnesses said several protesters were hurt in the town of Lahan, the focus of ethnic protests in the last few days against the peace deal. One policeman was injured, police said.

Police said they opened fire after protesters from the ethnic Madhesi people, who oppose a new interim constitution bringing former Maoist rebels into the political mainstream, tried to storm a police station.

''First we fired in the air, even then the crowd remained uncontrolled,'' a senior police officer, who declined to be named, told Reuters. ''We had to open fire at the protesters after they tried to storm the police post.'' A 12-hour curfew has been imposed on Lahan, officials said.

The last few days has seen the worst violence in Nepal since the Maoists joined parliament and starting locking up their weapons earlier this month in a peace deal ending an insurgency against the monarchy that has claimed 13,000 lives.

LAHAN, FOCUS OF UNREST The Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum, which has organised the anti-government protests, says the peace deal offers little for people living in the southern plains of the Terai, which is impoverished Nepal's breadbasket.

They want more jobs and funds from the central government.

''The concerns of the people living in the Terai should be adequately addressed in the interim constitution,'' defence analyst Bishnu Raj Upreti said.

''Otherwise there is a risk of a serious conflict between the people from the hills and the plains.'' Lahan was the focus of the weekend violence as Madhesi inhabitants torched government offices and buses following the shooting dead of a 16-year-old boy by a Maoist activist.

Nepal's multi-party government ordered a high-level probe today into the weekend violence that also sparked a transport strike by bus owners protesting a lack of security for their vehicles.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, leading politicians and former Maoist rebels held an emergency meeting today, and agreed to pay 14,000 dollars in compensation to the family of the boy.

The Maoists will formally express regret over the shooting, a joint statement issued after the meeting said.

The government says forces opposed to the peace deal were conspiring to create the unrest.

The Madhesh region, also known as the Terai, is a narrow, fertile strip of southern Nepal. It holds about half the country's population and many people have closer cultural links to nearby India than Nepal's highlands.

Militants belonging to the Janatantrik Terai Liberation Front, who broke away from the main Maoists in 2004, have also separately launched a violent campaign in the troubled region.

They are seeking the autonomy of the area saying people there should be allowed to run the army, police and the local administration.

''This could develop as a separatist movement if not properly addressed in time,'' said defence analyst Upreti.

REUTERS SP BD1740