KATHMANDU: UCPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ is arriving home today by wrapping up his weeklong China trip. The former Prime Minister is returning home via Hong Kong. He would land at Tribhuvan International Airport at 9 on Sunday night.

During his visit to world’s second largest economy, Prachanda held discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese Vice-President, Chinese Premier and other top leaders.

The former Prime Minister is learnt to have urged the Chinese leaders and investors to assist and invest in Nepal’s development projects, especially in hydropower and infrastructure development.

Nepal’s top politician and chief of UCPN (Maoist), Prachanda is the top south Asian politician to have a meeting with the Chinese leadership within a month after leadership change in China.

KATHMANDU: UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda who is currently on a week-long China trip is meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of Beijing, China, this afternoon.

Nepal’s top politician and former prime minister Prachanda is expected to talks issuing ranging from upcoming Nepal’s CA polls, Nepal-China relationship, Chinese economic assistance to Nepal and two parties relationship.

Prachanda has gotten 40 minutes to hold discussions with the Chinese President. Only high profile politicians get such a long time for discussions with the Chinese President.

Nepali Ambassador to China Dr Mahesh Maskey would also accompany Prachanda during his meeting with the top Chinese leader.
Earlier, on Wednesday Prachanda had met with Chinese Vice-President Li Yuonchao and discussed issues of bilateral relations and mutual interests between Nepal and China.

Maoist chairman Prachanda also met Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday. Similarly, he held an interaction with the Chinese intellects and economic leaders.

KATHMANDU: Five members of a Nepali family set themselves on fire at the office of Rajkot Municipal Corporation in India, leaving three of them dead. The family feared eviction from their shanty as civic body officials were planning to raze it in a drive to remove illegal structures, according to Indian media.

The five family members, including three women, turned up at the civic body office with kerosene-filled containers around noon on Wednesday. They poured kerosene on their body and set themselves on fire protesting the proposed demolition of their house located in Raiyadhar area of the city.

Three members of the family died at Rajkot civil hospital while two others are critical and battling for their lives.

“The three dead had sustained burn injuries over 90%. Other two are also severely injured and critical,” a doctor from Rajkot civil hospital said.

“We were being harassed by the civic body officials, society members and local politicians to vacate our house which they called illegal. They had threatened us to demolish it which prompted us to take this extreme step,” family member Gauri told media persons after the incident.

The incident shocked the Nepalese community in Rajkot where some angry mobs burned down a state transport bus in protest. In Saurashtra, a large number of Nepalese are settled and work as security guards.

Meanwhile, the Congress party condemned the incident and blamed the RJP ruled civic body for driving people to commit self-immolation. The opposition party has also given a Rajkot-bandh call for today.

Three persons who died are: Ashaben Bharatbhai, 35, Girish Mansingh, 25, and Bharat Mansingh, 40, while Vasumati Mansingh, 60, and Rekha Mahendrabnai, 32, are critical and battling for their lives in the hospital.