Madhesi party leaders claim to have been attacked by smugglers at Miteri bridge

The agitators occupying the Miteri bridge at the border crossing between Nepal and India have claimed that they were attacked by the local residents of Ahirawa tole in neighbouring India, who were actually smugglers. In the incident that took place on Wednesday, six demonstrators were injured. "They are smugglers, and they were looking for an opportunity to attack us at our sit-in site, as we have tried to stop their act of smuggling", said Iswar Chandra Yadav, who is the Coordinator of the Federal Inclusive Youth Alliance. "The clash too place for more than an hour, and we managed to chase them away", he said. The agitators staging the protest to block regular supplies into Nepal from India were attacked by locals from across the border with petrol bombs and stones. Among the agitators, Chunnu Mishra, Roshan Kumar, Asraf Ali, Binaya Sarraf, Krishna Patel and Om Prakash Sarraf were injured. Parsa District President of Rastriya Madhesh Samajbadi Party Prem Babu Patel said more than 100 'Indian smugglers' had come to attack the agitators. The situation in and around the Miteri bridge had become tense for sometime following the clash.The injured are undergoing treatment at Narayani Sub-regional Hospital. RSS