6 Birganj is now under curfew. Photo: Suresh Bidari

After more than a month without fatalities in the ongoing Madhes agitation, one Indian protester was killed in Birganj, forcing the local administration in the border city to clamp curfew. The Birganj border checkpoint has now been blocked for more than two months.

An emergency meeting of local authorities imposed curfew from 3 pm Monday, and said it will continue "until situation returns to normalcy". The meeting was called after violent protests erupted between police and Madhesi protesters in several places of Birganj.

Madhesi protesters burnt down a police post and security forces opened fire in retaliation, killing one person who was later identified as an Indian national.

5This is the first death after Madhesi protesters changed their tactic and started staging sit-ins at Nepal-India border points. This gave New Delhi the reason to stop supplies to Nepal, citing security on the Nepal side.

The fatality happened during a day of fast-paced events. After consultations between local India and Nepali authorities, Nepali police cleared the protesters on the Nepal side, allowing Indian cargo trucks trapped on the Nepal side for months to pass through into India. The agreement was to allow the Indian trucks to move into Nepal, but Indian border security refused to let them through.  Not a single Nepali truck stranded on the Indian side was allowed to enter Nepal during this brief period.

Soon after, Madhesi protesters reoccupied the road leading to the border. Violence flared up in other parts of the city and police uses tear gas and live ammunition.

Violence returned to the Tarai just a day after negotiators from the government and the agitating alliance made strides towards addressing Madhesi demands to redraw the provincial map in the new constitution.

On Sunday, a panel formed by the government had assured the Madhesi Front that federal boundaries would be redrawn to ensure proportional representation of Madhesi in all state organs. Madhesi leaders actually praised the government's proactive proposal.

But Monday's violence has once more cast a shadow over future talks, and Madhesi negotiations in Kathmandu pulled out of talks. However, minister Ram Janam Chaudhary, a member of the government's negotiation team, told Nepali Times: "The talks will not stall, it will resume when the government takes full shape."