Nepal police fires at protesters, Indian national killed

According to media reports, he has been identified as Asish Kumar Ram.

He belonged to India's  Raxaul town, reports said.

Several people were injured in the attack.

The Nepal police earlier  lathicharged people from the Madhesi community - protesting against the country's new constitution - as they blocked a connecting bridge near the Indo-Nepal border in Raxaul in Bihar.

The Madhesis - natives of the Terai region who share ethnic ties with India - have been on a protest against the Nepal Government's plans to divide the Himalayan nation into seven federal provinces under the Constitution adopted in September.

Nepal Police has claimed that the Madhesi protestors are not allowing the supplies to enter from the Indian side.
 
Over 200 Indian trucks, stranded for about 45 days on the Nepal side of the border due to the protests, have finally left for India. But on the Indian side, thousands of trucks still remain stranded.

Tension has been simmering in the southern plains of the landlocked Nepal  since the new Constitution was formally adopted onSeptember 20. Madhesi parties - who claim to represent the interests of the Indian-origin inhabitants of Nepal's Terai region - and Tharu ethnic groups have been agitating against the charter, which they say are discriminatory to their interests.

The protests have cast a shadow on the India-Nepal ties, as goods and fuel to the Himalayan nation via the major trading points of Birgunj and Biratnagar have been shrunk.

Faced with an acute shortage of fuel and essential goods,Nepal recently signed a deal with China to import petroleum products.

Image: Wikimedia Commons