Nepal arrests 60 over constitution protest

Kathmandu

Police in Nepal arrested 60 Maoist activists on Friday for forcing schools and public transport to shut down in a nationwide protest over government plans to bring in a new constitution. 

Authorities deployed hundreds of security personnel in Kathmandu for the first national strike since a devastating quake hit the country in April. 

Nepal's Maoists struck a deal with rival parties on a new constitution last month after years of bitter disagreement, spurred by an earthquake that killed more than 8,800 people in the Himalayan nation.

But a breakaway faction of the party says the deal betrays the principles of the Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war with the state that ended in 2006 and led to the abolition of a centuries-old feudal monarchy. 

"The draft is against the people and the spirit and hopes of the people's war," their spokesman Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma told AFP, referring to the conflict. 

"The constitution does not address the problems of the ethnic, racial and gender discrimination that we fought against."

Dozens have been injured this week in clashes between police and protesters angered by the terms of the draft constitution. 

A key sticking point concerns internal borders, with the opposition pushing for new provinces to be created along lines that could favour historically marginalised communities.