Agitators torch ambulance and vehicles in Nepal

Indian-origin Madhesi protesters have torched an ambulance and a medicine-laden truck carrying drugs worth over Rs 2 million imported from India near the Indo-Nepal border where hundreds of vehicles with essential goods are stuck due to the ongoing blockade.

The truck with medicines was torched by the cadres of the agitating Joint Democratic Madhesi Front (JDMF) close to the border town of Raxaul, despite an assurance that they would allow vehicles to carry medicines as the country faces shortage of medicines due to the two-month-long agitation in Terai, the police said.

The agitators hurled a petrol bomb on the vehicle in Birgunj Municipality of Parsa last night as the vehicle headed towards Janakpur, a southern Nepal town, the police said.

The fire in the medicine-laden truck destroyed medicines worth Rs 2 million imported from India. 

Earlier yesterday, the JDMF had issued a statement that they would allow movement of medicine-laden vehicles and would let the schools in southern Nepal function normally.