Nepal Police Shoot Anti-Charter Protester Dead

Nepal police fired into a crowd of demonstrators protesting against a proposed new constitution on Tuesday, killing one and injuring several others.

National police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam said the clashes broke out in the southeastern district of Saptari when protesters tried to block a major national highway.

Hundreds threw petrol bombs and stones at security forces, attacking their vehicles and vandalizing a local police station, he said.

"One person was killed and five were injured after police were forced to fire to control the violent mob," Bam told AFP.

Regional parties representing the Madhesi ethnic minority who live in the area called an indefinite strike on Tuesday to protest at plans in the constitution to divide Nepal into six provinces.

They say the way the new borders are drawn discriminates against historically marginalized communities such as the Madhesis, whom they fear will have limited representation in the new provinces.

Schools and businesses were forced to close and roads emptied of traffic as the strike took hold across southern Nepal.

District chief Birendra Kumar Yadav said authorities had imposed a curfew in the area until Wednesday morning.

The latest violence comes after two people were shot dead last week in the country's midwest while protesting against the proposals.

Lawmakers began working on a new national constitution in 2008, two years after the end of a decade-long Maoist insurgency that left an estimated 16,000 people dead and brought down the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

Negotiations faltered on the issue of internal borders and lawmakers only reached agreement after a devastating earthquake in April.