On the night of July 26, a Hindu procession was on its way back after collecting holy water from the Koshi River. The procession being taken out at Kaptanganj of Sunsari district in eastern Nepal was accompanied by loud music, to which some local Muslims objected. A scuffle broke out. Police got involved.
Hindu-Muslim tensions soon spread across Nepal’s Tarai-Madhesh belt, the east-west strip of land abutting India. In ensuing clashes between protesters and the police, four people died while curfews disrupted life across the region.
Such incidents follow a recognizable pattern. One newspaper investigation identified 17 Hindu-Muslim documented clashes over the past decade – with around two-thirds of them involving religious processions or idol immersions. The number of undocumented cases is undoubtedly higher.
continued on the article…
Archive: archive.is/rUSAQ