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Nepal: Street vendors' leader arrested in
mass protest against Government repression
Narayan Neupane president of the Nepal Street Vendors' Union was arrested on 7th
September with many of national union GEFONT's leaders in a campaign of mass
defiance led by the Joint Peoples' Movement following the Government's ban of
peaceful protest in the country.
Five organisations called for mass defiance of the Prohibition Order because it is unconstitutional. Umesh Upadhyaya, spokesperson for GEFONT, said on September 4th, 100 000s of people from informal and formal sector unions joined with other sectors of the movement in street demonstrations. In the course of the protest GEFONT Chair Mukunda Neupane and Trade Union Dept Chief Binda Pandey and 35 labour activists were arrested with 1 700 political activists in the capital city, Kathmandu.
GEFONT reported on the 7th via e-mail message that during sustained street protest national executive member Krishna Bahadur Ghale had also been arrested with the leaders of seven of its affilates, including Neupane.
Subsequently, on the 9th of September, Upadhyaya said that under the pressure of sustained mass defiance of the Prohibition Order the government had released all those who had been detained. Protest against the erosion of democracy and the Prohibition Order was continuing.