Madhesi civil society members staged a sit-in outside the UN Office in Pulchok, Lalitpur, on Thursday, to draw the attention of the global body to the recent spate of killings and rights violations in the Tarai region.

 Five more people were killed during protests in Tarai on Wednesday alone, taking the total number of deaths from the Madhes unrest to 33 since the Madhesi and Tharu people launched protests against the state demarcation on August 9. The entire Tarai belt has remained shut due to the continuous general strike ever since.

 A group of rights defenders, lawyers, engineers, doctors, activists and journalists demonstrated outside the building with placards that read 'why are you silent in HR violation in Tarai', 'Speak up against racist and communal government'.

 Dipendra Jha, Tula Narayan Sah, Randhir Chaudhary, Rita Sah, Vijay Kant Karna, Dipendra Das, Sunil Ranjan Singh, and Sitaram Agrahari, among other activists, took part in the demonstration.

 "Five deaths in a day but the UN is silent on the gross rights violation in the plains," said Jha, "It should uphold the human rights standards that it is supposed to safeguard."

 The demonstrators said that the UN should raise the issue of Madhes and ask the government to stop killings in the plains. "Or else the killing spree does not seem to stop yet," he said.

Also today, the activists also handed over a letter to Ram Babu Sah, a Kathmandu based UN official, in the name of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.