The situation in Hariharpur of Bara district remained tense until earlier in the day after a local died in police firing following a clash on Saturday. Local leaders, representatives of general public and police have been holding talks to reach an agreement.

In a bid to avert possible violence, the local administration had issued a curfew order in and around Simraungadh area effective from 12 pm till 6 pm today.

The curfew order was lifted at 2 in the afternoon after the locals, under the initiative of political parties, brought Patel’s body to Kalaiya. The locals, however, have not yet agreed for conducting postmortem of the body.

One Jayanarayan Patel, 42, of Hariharpur-7, was killed and another one sustained serious bullet injuries when Armed Police Force (APF) personnel opened fire at demonstrators on Saturday. Patel was shot in the chest.

The locals took to demonstrations demanding maintenance of the 25 km stretch of Kalaiya-Simroungadh dirt road.

The APF claimed that they opened fire in retaliation to contain the situation after the agitating mob turned violent and engaged in heavy stone pelting at the security personnel.

The protestors have kept the body in front of Area Police Office, Simroungadh, which is some 2 km from the clash site. Local administration had clamped curfew from 3 to 7 pm yesterday.

The locals have been demanding martyr status to the deceased, compensation to his family, name the canal road as ‘Jayanarayan path’ and put up his statue and action against the policeman guilty of firing.

Meanwhile, Chief District Officer Parshuram Aryal said initiatives are being taken to provide compensation to the victim’s family.

Shah Mohammad Hawari, 28, of Hariharpur-5, who sustained bullet injuries in his arms, was airlifted to Kathmandu on Saturday.

More than 40 people, including 17 police personnel, were injured in Saturday’s clash. The demonstrators rained stones and batons at the police and torched two APF vehicles (Na 1 Jha 720 and Na 1 Ga 588).