A daytime curfew was imposed three hours after dawn in Lahan, Siraha, which is 250 km southeast of the capital, Katmandu.

The deaths are the latest violence in the country's southern plains to mar a peace process that is ending years of Maoist insurgency in Nepal.

People in the plains have long complained of discrimination by people living in the mountains, saying they have been left out of development and policymaking decisions.

The protests in Lahan were to condemn the killing of a high school student earlier in January, when a strike called by groups claiming to be working for the rights of the people in the southern plain turned violent.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 27, 2007
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