The Indian Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has uprooted the electric fence installed at Punarbas, a village in Kanchanpur that shares border with India. Sharada Bista, the deputy mayor of Punarabas Municipality, said the SSB men on Wednesday entered the Nepali territory and dismantled the fence that was installed to keep off wild elephants from entering the border settlements.

Wild elephants from Dudhuwa National Park in India have long been troubling the people living along the border in the district. Keshav Prasad Timilsina, a Punarbas local, said they had recently completed installing the fence.

Superintendent of Police Dilliraj Bista said the fence installation work has been stopped for the time being as the district authority is planning to conduct a border survey from a joint team of the two countries to settle the long-standing territory dispute at Punarbas.

Last year, a man from Punarbas-8 had died when the Indian border security force opened fire at the villagers over a dispute of culvert construction close to the border.

UP police detain four Nepalis for 10 hours 

BARDIYA: Four Nepalis, who had gone to Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) to buy daily essentials, were detained by Indian police for nearly 10 hours in Motipur on Thursday.

Police Inspector Devendra Malla of Area Police Office, Mainapokhar, Bardiya, on Friday said the four Nepalis were detained at Motipur Police Station in India in an unrelated case where a man from Badhaiyatal Rural Municipality had alleged dealings with timber smugglers from India. 

The detainees were freed on Thursday night at the initiative of the Nepali security agencies.