SARACHCHANDRA BHANDARI, KATHMANDU, April 28: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) – a multilateral development agency founded to contribute towards lessening poverty and building prosperity of the region through physical infrastructure development – has entered 50 years of its operations.

The partnership between Nepal and ADB since its establishment in 1967 has consolidated the mutual cooperation in reducing country poverty, enhancing vocational skills and technical know-how and addressing natural calamities and emergency situation besides education, health and drinking water.

The Bank has so far invested billions of rupees to execute small, middle and mega development projects since 50 years backs in its bid to support Nepal to free from vicious circle of poverty.

It is noted that Nepal has received ADB cooperation in around 200 development projects.

Among the ongoing projects in operations with ADB technical support and funding are Melamchi Drinking Water, Hydropower Investment, South Asian Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation, Roads Improvement, School Sector Improvement, Kathmandu Upatyaka Drinking Water Supply Improvement, Electricity Extension and Transmission Capacity Expansion and Engineering Higher Education Expansion.

On the occasion of the 50 years of its establishment, the Board of Governors of ADB are discussing development issues under ‘Building Together the Prosperity of Asia’ on the participation of over 3000 participants from 67 member countries.

The four-day seminar programme provides a vibrant platform to discuss economic, finance and development issues of current interests to ADB stakeholders. The topical discussion would be on Asia’s opportunities for the next 50 years, resilient cities, public private partnership progress and challenges in Asia and the Pacific, women leadership for inclusive and livable cities, transcending the middle income challenges and technology for development, among others.

A high-level Nepali delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara will apprise the international community of Nepal’s development aspirations, contemporary political development, local level elections and development projects and make efforts for further cooperation.

A separate meeting of the Finance Ministers of SAARC countries is also taking place in Yokohama on the same occasion. The meeting would discuss the agendas to make SAARC functional and take stock the programmes SAARC announced earlier on free trade, energy, road network and connectivity.

ADB is owned by 67 members including 48 from the Asia-pacific region. Nepal as a founder member of the Bank has invested 0.03 % of the total capital of ADB.

On Nepal’s 50 years partnership with ADB and its role, former Finance Minister and Foreign Affairs Minster Dr Ram Sharan Mahat said, “We need ADB as a reliable partner for the development of Nepal”. Lauding ADB cooperation in development infrastructure of Nepal, Dr Mahat said the importance of multilateral agencies such as ADB is high when we need more development cooperation for country’s prosperity.
Another former Finance Minster Surendra Pandey commented, “ADB cooperation is imperative for us to attain double digit economic growth rate”.

BEIJING (Reuters) – The teenage son of a prominent Chinese general goes on trial on Wednesday suspected of involvement in a gang rape in a case that has inflamed public anger at the offspring of the political elite who are widely seen as spoilt and reckless.

Li Tianyi, 17, is among five men accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Beijing hotel in February, according to state media.

His father is General Li Shuangjiang of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), who is a singer known for performing patriotic songs on television shows and at official events.

Li’s mother, Meng Ge, is a famous singer in the PLA.

It is not the teenager’s first brush with the law. In 2011, he drove a BMW into another car in Beijing, beat up the couple inside the vehicle and then scoffed at bystanders about calling the police.

He was sentenced to a year in a juvenile correctional facility and his father made a public apology.

The latest case has dominated headlines for weeks, focusing attention again on China’s political aristocrats who are widely viewed as corrupt and above the law.

It follows the dramatic trial of ousted former senior politician Bo Xilai, whose family’s lurid excesses were detailed by the court and lapped up on social media.

Li has become the most prominent target of complaints that the sons and daughters of China’s top-ranked Communist Party officials can dodge the law because of family influence.

“The general public is worried that his family, because of their relationships and power, will be able to use their connections,” said Zhang Ming, a politics professor at Renmin University.

“In China, this kind of privilege is very powerful. It’s omnipresent,” Zhang said. “The people’s fears are not groundless.”

In July, hackers attacked the website of one of the law firms representing Li, saying: “We just want to return justice to the client.”

“SUE ME!”

President Xi Jinping has made addressing discontent over abuses by officials a main goal. Rising mistrust of the government presents a potent risk for leaders who fear social instability.

Even the People’s Daily, the party’s mouthpiece, weighed in on Li’s case when it broke, saying the failure of prominent families to educate their children could “lead to antagonism among the people”.

The case has also stoked debate about rape and attitudes towards women.

In July, a law professor at the elite Tsinghua University apologized online after he had said that “raping a chaste woman is more harmful than raping a bar girl, a dancing girl … or a prostitute”, sparking outrage.

Li’s lawyer, Chen Shu, told Reuters Li would not plead guilty but he declined to elaborate except to say the court was not expected to announce a verdict on Wednesday.

Li’s lawyers have asked the court to investigate suspected prostitution and extortion relating to the case, Li’s legal adviser, Lan He, was quoted by the state-run China News Service as saying.

The lawyer for the woman victim could not be reached for comment.

Family connections do not always help unruly offspring.

In 2010, a 22-year-old man was jailed for six years after he ran over a student and shouted “Sue me if you dare. My father is Li Gang!”

Li Gang was a deputy provincial police chief. His son’s warning has become a byword for nepotism and corruption.

(Additional reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel)

MANILA (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Filipinos angry at official corruption marched through the center of Manila and other cities to demand the abolition of a misused fund for legislators’ pet projects, the biggest protest aimed at Benigno Aquino’s government.

Aquino came to office in 2010 on a good governance and anti-corruption platform and consistently enjoys popularity ratings of more than 70 percent, but the Philippines remains one of the most corrupt countries in East Asia.

Protesters, responding to a call to wear white, converged on Manila’s largest park angry at the misuse of “pork barrel” funds under the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

The money is frequently channeled to projects solely to impress voters, though many have turned out to be non-existent.

Aquino said on Friday the government would plug leaks in the fund, an announcement appeared timed to preempt Monday’s march, and a presidential spokesman said the protesters and government wanted the same thing.

“The message is clear – we are on the same side. We are against corruption,” spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters.

But the protesters disagreed. Church and civic groups, health workers, students and entire families ignored Aquino’s promise to overhaul the PDAF and called for its abolition.
View gallery.”
Manila’s Archbishop Cardinal Tagle takes part in a …
Manila’s Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (C) stands next to a demonstrator wearing a mask dep …

“Just transfer the funds to department agencies delivering services,” said Jun Bernandino, a quadriplegic who joined the march. “They are lawmakers, not service providers. Give the agencies enough budget to deliver the services the people need.”

Police said around 60,000 protesters thronged Luneta Park, some wearing pig masks and headgear. Others carried banners saying “Scrap pork barrel” and “No to pork”.

Organizers had hoped for a million to join the protest which is not expected to hurt Aquino’s popularity.

Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, the charismatic archbishop of Manila who many thought a strong candidate to become pope during this year’s Vatican conclave, joined the protest saying it was time for the government to show greatness.

About 5,000 left-wing rallyists took the protest to the nearby presidential palace while a few thousand stayed at the park waiting for a free concert organized by one of the protest groups. About 1,500 police were deployed, but no incidents were reported.

Civic groups called the protest after a state audit showed some lawmakers had funneled 10 billion pesos ($226 million) in total to non-existent projects and groups under the previous government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has since been charged with plunder and electoral fraud.

($1 = 44.3 pesos)

(Additional reporting by Rolando Ng; Editing by Nick Macfie)

BEIJING (Reuters) – China sees no reason to conduct talks with Japan over their dispute about ownership of a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, Chinese deputy foreign minister Li Baodong said on Tuesday.

Li said Japan’s call for high-level talks was not genuine, but merely grandstanding.

“A meeting between leaders is not simply for the sake of shaking hands and taking pictures, but to resolve problems,” said Li, speaking to reporters ahead of President Xi Jinping’s attendance at the G20 summit next week.

“If Japan wants to arrange a meeting to resolve problems, they should stop with the empty talk and doing stuff for show.”

Relations between the world’s second- and third-largest economies have been strained for months, largely because of the spat over the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is keen to improve relations and has called for high-level dialogue with China, although he has rejected any conditions on talks and China has shown no inclination to even want talks.

Moves by certain Japanese politicians to deny the country’s wartime past also do not help, he added.

“Under these conditions, how can we organize the kind of leaders summit that Japan wants?” Li said.

China reacted with fury earlier this month after Japan’s Abe sent an offering to a shrine for war dead, which also honors war criminals, while cabinet members visited it in person.

China suffered under Japanese rule, with parts of the country occupied from the 1930s. Japanese leaders have apologized in the past but many in China doubt the sincerity of the apologies, partly because of contradictory remarks by politicians.

“What Japan has to do now is show vision and courage, properly face up to history and take a proper attitude and real actions to get rid of the obstacles which exist for the healthy development of bilateral ties,” Li said.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)

New Delhi, Aug 24 (IANS) The Delhi police Saturday, during final arguments in the Dec 16, 2012 gangrape case, told a city court that the accused had a clear intention to kill the victim so that no witness of the horrific incident was left behind.

Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan told Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna that the intestine of the gangrape victim was so damaged that it was “impossible for her to survive”.

He said the accused also tried to kill the gangrape victim’s male friend, who was also present in the bus with her.

Krishnan said the woman and her friend were dragged with their hair from the rear of the bus to the front and thrown out of the moving vehicle.

The prosecution added: “Later they tried to crush them under the wheels, but it was their fate which kept them alive. The modus operandi of the accused shows their conduct, that they were on roads to satisfy their lust.”

The intestine of the 23-year-old intern physiotherapist was damaged with an iron rod, which left her bleeding profusely and resulted in her death, Krishnan added.

“The victim’s (girl) intestine was so damaged that it was impossible for her to survive. The system on which the human body works was completely destroyed by the accused persons by using blunt object (the rods),” he said.

“The injuries were caused deliberately with an intention to eliminate the victims (the girl and her male friend), with a clear intention to murder them.”

He also told the court that all the six accused had attacked the victim’s male friend with the intention to kill him.

Krishnan added: “There cannot be a clear case than this. They wanted to kill both the victim and her friend by trying to run the bus over them. The accused had the clear intention to eliminate them so that there will be no victim to tell the story of the Dec 16 horrific night.”

Accused Ram Singh (who is dead)), his brother Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and a juvenile are accused in the case.

The woman succumbed to her injuries Dec 29, 2012 while undergoing treatment in a

Singapore hospital.

The juvenile is facing proceedings before a Juvenile Justice Board, while the four other accused are standing trial in the fast-track court. Accused Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail, where he was lodged.

The Juvenile Justice Board is likely to pronounce the order Aug 31.

Lucknow, Aug 24 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh government Saturday arrested hundreds of saints and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists as they tried to march towards Ayodhya for the proposed ’84 kosi parikrama’ (procession) beginning Sunday.

Police officers said 46 saints were arrested in Kanpur while 42 were nabbed in Agra.

Security and checking at the borders of Uttar Pradesh with Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh were stepped up. In all, 339 saints have so far been held from Agra, Jhansi, Kanpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Basti and other districts, home department officials told IANS.

Additional security forces have been sent to Ayodhya, Ambedkarnagar and Gonda, police officials said. Saturday, only 80 percent of state roadways bus fleet plied on the Faizabad route where more than 52 check points and barriers have been erected.

Several prominent seers, including Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, have urged the state government and officials to allow the peaceful passage of the ’84 kosi parikrama’.

Meanwhile, VHP leaders have gone underground and are refusing to talk to the media but maintain they will discreetly reach Ayodhya early Sunday.

The dispute is centred on a plot of land in Ayodhya of Faizabad district in Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around access to a site traditionally regarded as the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram, the history and location of the Babri Mosque at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque.

— Indo-Asian News Service

NEW DELHI (AP) — In a tangle of forgotten, overgrown brush in the heart of India’s capital, a quiet plan has been hatched to change the landscape of one of the world’s most populous cities.

An intricate Mughal garden is being created. Crumbling sandstone tombs nearly lost to history are being rebuilt. An artificial lake is being carved out. The renovation of Sunder Nursery is intended to serve as the catalyst for an even more ambitious project: the creation of a mammoth, iconic park that would rival New York’s Central Park as a refuge from urban chaos.

“It would be the place where the city descends. It would be an oasis,” said Ratish Nanda, project director for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the driving force behind the dream of a mega-park.

To create that park would require the merger of a string of adjoining gardens, heritage areas and a zoo administered by different government agencies, an incredibly complicated task in a land where bureaucratic turfs are fiercely protected. And though some officials are beginning to discuss the plan, no formal proposal has been formulated.

But sometimes in India, it takes tenacious dreamers like Nanda to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Nanda and the Aga Khan Trust have taken on seemingly impossible tasks before. They helped wrest a 17 acre compound in the area, along with a large monument, from India’s version of the Boy Scouts. They are currently fighting with railways officials to get them to remove a storeroom blocking access to another monument.

“One single man has to be there, to strive, to go out and achieve this,” said Ashok Khurana, a powerful supporter and the recently retired head of Delhi’s Central Public Works Department, one of the many agencies that would need to work together to create the giant park.

The payoff would be considerable. Delhi, with a population of about 17 million, is a surprisingly green city, with small parks dotting many neighborhoods and Lodhi Gardens — with a clutch of crumbling monuments of its own — attracting speed walkers and picnickers in upscale south Delhi.

The mega-park would tower over them all.

It would be 480 hectares (1,200 acres), considerably larger than Central Park. It would have 100,000 trees of more than 300 species, Nanda said. It would encompass one of the most impressive collections of medieval Islamic monuments, anchored by the grandiose tomb of Emperor Humayun, a 16th Century prototype for the Taj Mahal. It would have an ancient fort, a Buddhist stupa, flocks of exotic birds and white tigers in the zoo.
Nanda imagines families rolling out carpets on the grass in the winter and enjoying a book in the shade of a tree in the summer. He imagines people touring the tombs or just crossing the park on their daily commutes.

The heart of the dream is the restoration of Sunder Nursery, a 40-hectare (100-acre) field adjacent to Humayun’s Tomb, both of which are being restored by the Aga Khan’s trust. The nursery was founded by British colonists to grow experimental plants. In recent years it was barely functioning, became a dumping ground for construction waste, and was visited by a few hundred people a month.

The trust fought back a government plan to cut the nursery in half — and destroy a garden tomb — to make way for a major road planned for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Nanda said. It had to remove 1,000 truckloads of construction rubble scattered about the fields.

It restored the 500-year-old Sunderwala Burj tomb from a gray building patched with concrete to the striking burnt orange sandstone and white lime mortar of its original design. A dozen other monuments in the nursery stand testament to the era, half a millennium ago, when the Islamic Mughal emperors from Central Asia ruled over a vast swathe of the Indian subcontinent.

The Sunderwala Burj stands at the entrance to a Mughal garden being built under the inspiration of Persian carpet designs, with squares of grass and flower beds bordering a thin pond that will send water flowing into narrow channels and over intricately carved stone patterns.
Nearby, workers have dug a reservoir to be filled with fish swimming in water from a specially built treatment plant. That water will also flow through streams into areas forested with plants from Delhi’s different habitats. There is an amphitheater and a bonsai pavilion and plans for a restaurant.

Peacocks wander through the thick grass, one of the 56 bird species in the nursery.

“That was a kingfisher,” Nanda said excitedly as he gave a tour. He pointed to a Mughal-era lotus pond being excavated. To the first fruits growing on a young lemon tree. To the new rose garden and the bright white and red edifice of the newly restored Lakkarwala Burj monument.

“This is beautiful. This is how it’s meant to be. Look at this parapet, it’s like a jewel,” he said.

The nursery project, he said, is intended to turn what had been a dead zone “into a thriving ecological hub.”
“The idea here is that this is a magical space that takes people away from the humdrum of daily life,” he said.

But this is just a small step he hopes will create a creeping momentum toward the larger park.

He is already eyeing the crumbling Azimnganj Sarai, an early 16th Century pilgrim’s motel just outside the nursery on zoo land. The Mughal garden, in fact the entire design of the nursery, points directly at the sarai, and he is hoping to get permission to restore it and add it to the park. That would bring him a small step closer to the mega-park dream.

That park, as envisioned by Nanda and his colleagues, would start with Humayun’s Tomb and its complex of gardens and monuments. Just to the north is the nursery, then the national zoo, then the Purana Qila, the oldest fort in the city. Running alongside all this is the narrow Millennium Park, which borders the Yamuna River. These areas are so cut off now that a trip from Humayun’s Tomb to Millennium Park, only about 100 meters (yards) away, would take 5 1/2 kilometers (3 miles).

“These are all things that have been originally linked and these artificial boundaries are just silly,” Nanda said, pointing to the walls around a cluster of monuments.

He fears, however, the struggle of getting government agencies to cooperate.

“It takes centuries to get anything done here,” he said.

The Archaeological Survey of India runs Humayun’s Tomb and the Purana Qila. Delhi’s Central Public Works Department controls the nursery. The environment ministry controls the zoo and the Delhi Development Authority runs Millennium Park. Even the railways have land involved.

The agencies would have to pool their budgets, pull down their walls, work together to provide parking and maintenance.

Mohammad Shaheer, a landscape architect who worked on the nursery, said the draw of creating such a unique space where residents of this city of migrants could interact and create memories will be irresistible.

Pravin Srivastava, the director general of the Archaeological Survey of India, said the recent renovation at Humayun’s Tomb, which involved about a dozen different agencies, proved such cooperation was possible.

“Everyone has their perceived priorities and their way of functioning. Getting around those certain blocks and mindsets is something that needs to be addressed,” he said. Yet he predicted the new park could be inaugurated within five years.

“It can, and it should,” he said.

Khurana, the former head of CPWD, predicted the park would be a tourist magnet with 20,000 to 30,000 visitors a day.

“The mindset is, everyone wants it,” he said. “When the heart is willing, everything is OK.”
___

Follow Ravi Nessman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ravinessman

NEW DELHI (AP) — Police on Saturday arrested a second man in the gang rape of a young photojournalist in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai, and said they had enough evidence to prosecute those responsible for a crime that has renewed public outcry over sexual violence in the country.

The victim, a 22-year-old Indian woman, remained in a hospital Saturday and was recovering well after being repeatedly raped by five men Thursday night in a deserted textile mill, said Mumbai’s police commissioner, Satyapal Singh.

She and a male colleague, who was tied up and beaten during the attack, had been on a magazine assignment as interns taking photographs of a south Mumbai neighborhood where upscale malls, trendy restaurants and luxury condominiums sit alongside sprawling slums and abandoned mills.

Police said the suspects approached the journalists on the pretense of helping them get permission to shoot inside the crumbling building.

The first suspect arrested, an unemployed 19-year-old man from south Mumbai, appeared in court Saturday and was ordered to remain in custody until Aug. 30, police said. Dozens of protesters rallied and called for justice outside the court.

View gallery.”Photojournalists sit with placards during a protest …
Photojournalists sit with placards during a protest against the gang rape of a photojournalist in Mu …
A second suspect was arrested before dawn Saturday and confessed to authorities about his involvement in the incident, Singh told reporters. Members of India’s elite crime unit were hunting three more suspects.

Singh said police had the evidence needed to prosecute the five suspects, including testimony given by the woman immediately after the attack while she was in the hospital receiving treatment.

The attack incensed many in India already sickened by sexual violence after the deadly gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in December raised alarms about women’s safety and revealed a culture in which rape victims are often pressed by social pressure or police into keeping silent.

Pledging to crack down, the federal government created fast-track courts, increased prison terms for rape, and criminalized voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women.

But Thursday’s gang rape reignited debate over whether more measures, including educational outreach, were needed to improve safety for women.

View gallery.”Photojournalists participate in a protest against the …
Photojournalists participate in a protest against the gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai in Ja …
“It is appalling that a young woman working in the heart of Mumbai was attacked in this manner,” Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement.

The Indian Women’s Press Club demanded authorities “provide a secure environment for women on a priority basis.” Journalists rallied in Indian cities from the south-coast metropolis of Chennai to Gauhati in northeast Assam state.

Politicians across parties expressed outrage. Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi said she was “saddened and pained” by the “heinous crime,” while Parliament asked for a detailed report on the investigation and the government urged the “harshest” punishment for those found guilty.

The Tourism Ministry said it was launching a nationwide “I Respect Women” campaign to improve security and “raise awareness about the need for more sensitive behavior toward women.” India is particularly worried about its image abroad, after a Swiss bicycle tourist was gang raped in March in central Madhya Pradesh state and an American woman was gang raped in June in the northern resort town of Manali.

About 1,000 people wearing black armbands protested Friday night in Mumbai, long considered one of India’s safest cities for women.

View gallery.”Photojournalists participate in a protest against the …
Photojournalists participate in a protest against the gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai in Ja …
“If such an incident can take place with a media person in a metropolis like Mumbai, what can be said about the security of a common woman in smaller towns?” said S.M. Pari, president of the Indian Media Photographers’ Club, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Local media were providing a steady stream of reports on new rape cases across India. A 16-year-old girl was in critical condition Saturday after being raped and stabbed in the throat Tuesday in the eastern state of Orissa, according to PTI. In Jharkhand state to the north, a group of bandits allegedly gang raped a female police constable before dawn Thursday on a highway as she was driving to attend her brother-in-law’s cremation.

___

Follow Katy Daigle on Twitter at http://twitter.com/katydaigle

MUMBAI : One person has been arrested and four people have been identified for their involvement in the brutal gang rape of a woman photojournalist at an abandoned mill, a police official said Friday.

Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh said the breakthrough was possible following a statement given by the victim’s male colleague who was present at the time of the incident Thursday.

“While one person has been nabbed, four others involved in the incident have been identified and further investigations are underway,” Singh told the media here.

Police came to know about it after the victim was taken to a hospital.

Though police have identified all the accused, Singh declined to reveal their names.

Speaking to reporters, CEO Jaslok Hospital Dr Tarang Giachandani said that the victim is stable even though she suffered internal and external injuries. . She underwent minor surgical procedure, is now in recovery, not in the ICU.

Meanwhile, MNS chief Raj Thackeray demanded the removal of State Home minister R R Patil over rape of the photojournalist. Thackeray called Patil “an incapable home minister” who is shielded by his leader NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sainiks protested the incident outside the N M Joshi Marg police station, demand capital punishment for rapists.

Earlier, sketches of the five suspects were prepared on the basis of the description provided by the victim’s male colleague, who was tied up by the accused before they assaulted the woman. The accused were apparently in 24 to 30 years age group.

The 22-year-old photojournalist with an English magazine was allegedly gang-raped while on a photography assignment in the abandoned Shakti Mills Compound in Mahalaxmi around 6.30 p.m. Thursday.

In a chilling reminder of the December gang-rape in Delhi, the men tied up the victim’s friend and raped the woman.

Earlier, police said they had picked up about 20 people for questioning.

In a statement given to police, the girl said the five goons were present in the Shakti Mills compound. They started making lewd remarks and harassed her. When her friend intervened, two of them assaulted him. Three others took her inside the dilapidated structure and raped her.

“After the duo clicked photos for around half an hour, two youths emerged there and asked if they had valid permission for clicking photos. Then they offered to take them to the right authority, when three more joined the earlier two youths and in the process separated them. While the hand and legs of the male colleague were tied and he was gagged, the accused raped the girl,” said Vinayak Deshmukh, deputy commissioner of police, Zone III.

The victim has been admitted to Jaslok Hospital. Preliminary reports suggested that she sustained multiple internal injuries, they said.

Dr Taran Gyanchandani, acting CEO of the hospital, said, “We are doing the needful…she is under strict observation.” A gangrape case has been registered in NM Joshi Marg police station.

The statement of the victim’s friend has been recorded, police said.

They claimed the victim has identified two of the accused by their names. She told police that two of them were calling each other as Rupesh and Sajid, they said, adding that some drug addicts have been picked up from the area for questioning.

Maharashtra home minister RR Patil had visited the victim at Jaslok hospital.

“This is a very serious matter. We have taken note of it. The accused will be arrested soon,” Patil told reporters outside the hospital.

He said Mumbai Police commissioner Satyapal Singh has been directed to ensure that the culprits are arrested soon. (Agencies)

It was the fourth year the rally was held, with organisers saying the march through the streets of Katmandu was an opportunity for sexual minorities to come out in the open and educate the public.

“This is the day when we gay people are able to come out in the open without any fear or shame to celebrate with our community,” said Bhumika Shrestha, one of the organisers of the rally.

Nepal is considered a conservative nation. Most of its people are Hindu, and many still follow traditional beliefs. Most marriages are still arranged by parents, and extended families all live together. It was only after the fall of the monarchy and the election of the Constituent Assembly in 2008 that sexual minorities began to demand rights.

“We are here to appeal to the general public so they stop all types of discrimination against us,” said Nisha Sharma, a rally participant. “We are your children, brothers and sisters, so please don’t despise us. Love us and treat us like your own.” Kathmandu-based Blue Diamond Society has been campaigning for Nepal’s sexual minorities and demanding that the new constitution, which was being written by the assembly before it expired last year, include rights for them.

The group has also been demanding that the government continue to issue citizenship certificates with the category ‘third gender’ for people who do not wish to be identified as male or female.

Activists say ‘third gender’ minorities have had difficulty getting jobs or passports, enrolling in schools or owning property without proper citizenship certificates.