Protesters along the India-Nepal border were forcibly removed by Nepalese police on Monday, allowing over 200 trucks who had been stuck there for 40 days to finally enter India.
The Agence France-Presse news agency reported that police used batons on the protestors and burned down tents that they were using to block the border checkpoint.
But while the trucks were cleared to enter India, trucks bringing fuel and other supplies to Nepal were being blocked by Indian customs officials. Nepal is currently under a severe fuel shortage that has brought the country to a virtual standstill, according to Time.
The large scale protests taking place in Nepal began in August after the country adopted a new constitution. Minority groups, including the Madhesi and Tharu, believe they have not been accurately represented in the new constitution because it divides the group into a number of states and dilutes their political power. The protests have also brought a political standoff between Nepal and India, as Nepal believes India is encouraging the civil unrest and protests and purposefully blocking their fuel supplies from entering Nepal.
Late last week, Nepal signed an agreement with China to refill their fuel reserves.
Since the protests began in August, 45 people have lost their lives, including an Indian man who was shot by Nepalese police on Monday. Nepalese officials report that the man was among a group of ethnic protesters who were attacking a police station with petrol bombs and stones, according to the Washington Post.
Nepal is low on gasoline and medical supplies due to an unofficial economic blockade imposed by the neighboring country where they get most of their supplies, India.
Many Nepalese believe that the blockade is a way of retaliating against the Nepalese government after they approved a new constitution that New Delhi believed to be discriminatory to an Indian community living in Nepal’s border districts., the Madhesi.
Violent protests by the Mahesis that killed at least 45 people have taken place for months while Nepalese lawmakers debated the constitution. The violence escalated after the constitution was made official.
Shortly after, Indian trucks stopped crossing the border. Only about 100 or so have crossed the border since Wednesday, but more than 1,000 are sitting at the border with medicine, gasoline, produce, and cooking fuel. Currently, fuel is being rationed in Nepal, and is no longer being sold for the use of private vehicles for the next three days.
“Why is India imposing a blockade against us? Don’t we have the right to draft our constitution?” asked Nirmala Rai, a school teacher who participated in a demonstration near the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu on Monday.
India has stated that there is no blockade against Nepal. They blame protesters for blocking the roads and scaring their truck drivers.
Officials on both sides announced that they are working on the situation and that supplies will resume soon, but neither side had a time estimate for when the trucks will cross the border again.
On Monday at least three protesters were shot and injured, a day after the Himalayan nation adopted its first democratic constitution, the violence diminished hopes that the historic event would put a stop to weeks of clashes.
The demonstrators are in critical condition after police opened fire at an anti-constitution protest in the city of Biratnagar, said Pramod Kharel, a deputy police superintendent in the Morang district of southern Nepal.
The three biggest forces in parliament — the Nepali Congress, UML and Maoist parties — finally reached agreement in June, spurred by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake two months earlier that killed nearly 8,900 people and destroyed around half a million homes. The new constitution is the final stage in a peace process that began when Maoist fighters laid down their arms in 2006 after a decade-long insurgency aimed at abolishing an autocratic monarchy and creating a more equal society.
President Ram Baran Yadav on Sunday promulgated Nepal’s new constitution, despite fierce opposition by minority groups in the southern plains whose homeland will be split up under the charter. It creates seven states in a secular, federal system, but is opposed by some groups who wanted to re-establish Nepal as a Hindu nation and others who feel it is unfavourable to people in the plains, near India.
More than 40 people, mostly protesters, have been killed in recent weeks in clashes over the plan.
On the heels of riots in Baltimore and the arrest and charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, the mayor has asked the federal government to carry out an investigation of the police department.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said that the police had a “fractured” relationship with the community. The declaration comes after the Obama administration’s new attorney general visited the city and held a private meeting with Blake.
“The attorney general is actively considering that option in light of what she heard from law enforcement, city officials, and community, faith and youth leaders in Baltimore yesterday,” Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said.
A spokesman for Baltimore City Council President Jack Young said that Mr. Young has been calling for an investigation since October. The requested investigation is similar to the one in Ferguson, Missouri after the Michael Brown incident.
In the first five years of their term, the Justice Department has started investigations into over 20 police departments, more than double the amount of the previous term.
Five law enforcement agencies were found to have had no violations. Cities that have faced similar investigations include New Orleans and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
While most of the nation was focused on the unrest in Baltimore, the riots in Ferguson began again.
Police say three people were shot, over 100 shots were fired and multiple small fires were set last night as people protested against the Freddie Gray incident.
Acting Police Chief Al Eickhoff told reporters that two of the people shot were hit in the neck and the third hit in the leg. A 20-year-old man is under arrest for one of the shooting incidents and five others were arrested on charges ranging from burglary to brandishing a weapon.
“This community is trying to move forward and there are people who are just set on violence,” Eickhoff said. “(The people who committed crimes) were not protesters, they were just a criminal element set on undoing all that this community has done to move forward.”
“We’ve got a certain amount of a criminal element that do not want to see the community move forward. We’ve got a completely new face on the city council and we’re changing things. I’m not sure if they’re just resisting it or what. The three shooting victims we had were rioters, and while we’re trying to take care of the victims, they’re intent on damaging the policemen who are trying to help the rioters that have been shot.”
In a scene reminiscent of the earlier Ferguson riots, a convenience store was looted by a mob. At least two dozen people ransacked the store just after 1:30 a.m. taking liquor, cigarettes, candy, lottery tickets and about $80 from a cash drawer.
The store was a block away from where the gunshot victims were hit.
Police were on the streets to stop rioters until 3:30 a.m. according to Eickhoff.
It wasn’t all a gang of rioters in Baltimore last night.
The gang members who Baltimore officials said were banding together to attack police went to the media with a message that they didn’t call a truce so they could team up to attack the police; they were teaming up to stop the rioting.
A group of Bloods gang members told WBAL-TV that they had been attacked on the streets when they were stopping rioters from damaging buildings and businesses by police who did not realize they were attempting to stop the riots.
A member of the BGF gang said that the groups were “black men united for justice” and that people need to stop believing everything they’re hearing in the media because they’re tired of being blamed for the rioting when in this case they’re not involved with the crimes.
Others stepped up to stop the rioting and protests in an attempt to bring calm to the city of Baltimore…including the family of Freddie Gray. Gray’s family, clergy and residents of the area banded together to stop the violence.
“I want them all to go back home,” said the Rev. Jamal Bryant. “It’s disrespect to the family. The family was very clear — we’ve been saying it all along — today there was absolutely no protest, no demonstration.”
Members of a Christian church formed a human wall as well as other faith groups.
CNN showed video of a parent coming into the middle of the rioting and grabbing her son, forcing him to go home.
“I wish I had more parents that took charge of their kids out there tonight,” Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said.
The darker side of the city was shown all night through looting, arson and violence. A drug treatment center and senior center that was under construction was burned to the ground by protesters. A CVS pharmacy, a locally-owned pharmacy, liquor store and multiple cars were robbed and burned.
Fox News discovered a report that shows a link between the violence in Ferguson, MO and the violence that is burning Baltimore.
A government related data mining firm has found between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore that were connected to the peak of the violence and rioting in Ferguson. The discovery suggests that “professional protesters” are taking advantage of the Baltimore situation in an attempt to cause anarchy and violence.
Fox reported that the data mining company said the locations could be spoofed, but that they can’t fully explain away the massive numbers if that would be the case.
The launching of the Monday rioting began via social media when calls were placed for a “purge” starting at the Mondawmin Mall and moving downtown. The reference was to a movie called “The Purge” where for 12 hours there is no police or emergency response, allowing citizens to commit acts of crime and violence with immunity.
While gang members are denying they were working together to focus on white police officers, texts through social media did show accounts calling for people to “kill all white police officers” in response to the death of Freddie Gray.
A 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew for all Baltimore citizens goes into effect tonight and will last for one week.
Baltimore police investigators have confirmed that the city’s three biggest gangs are joining together to attack police following the funeral of Freddie Gray.
The Bloods, Crips and the Black Guerrilla Family have formed what’s being labeled a “partnership” to “take out” the police.
Spokesmen for the Baltimore police would not officially say the threat is connected to the death of Freddie Gray but the coordinated assaults on police officers began shortly after the end of Gray’s funeral service Monday in Baltimore.
The news of the unification of the gangs backs up a previous warning this year from the FBI that the Black Guerrilla Family gang was targeting “white cops” in the state. A member of the BGF was caught in a Baltimore area police station with a gun in January in what he said was a “security test” of the precinct ordered by gang leaders.
The gang members have been posting on social media their actions against police, flashing gang colors and signs amid the rioting. They’ve shown kicked in car windows, evidence of looting and other actions while demanding “Justice for Freddie.”
Members of the Nation of Islam said they had brokered the deal between the gangs.
“I can say with honesty those brothers demonstrated they can be united for a common good,” Nation of Islam minister Carlos Muhammad told The Daily Beast.
“At the rally, they made the call that they must be united on that day. It should be commended.”
The incidents involving the gangs in Baltimore are having national impact. Both the NYPD and the LAPD have announced their officers are on heightened alert over the threats.