The District Administration (DAO) has continued the curfew in Bhimdutta Municipality 4 and 14 of Kanchanpur on Saturday as well.

The DAO imposed a curfew in Bhimdutta Municipality 4 and 18 from 8 pm on Friday until further notice in view of security concerns after the protests over the rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta, in Mahendranagar turned violent unexpectedly.

The DAO said that a meeting of the District Security Committee decided to impose curfew to take the situation under control.

The District Security Committee had decided to clamp curfew from Janajyoti Chowk to Karagar of Bhimdutta Municipality-18, from Tripura Youth Club Bana Gaun to Ningalasaini Schook of Bhim Dutta Municipality-6, at Khairani Chowk in North and from Sip Bikash Kendra to Madan Bhandari School in South.

With an initiative of the local administration, an all party meeting was held on Saturday morning to normalise the situation. Chief of security agencies and leaders of various political parties among others were present in the meeting.

A person died and at least 24 others were injured when police opened fire at locals protesting over the rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta, in Mahendranagar on Friday.

The protests, which began late last month after the teenager was found dead, intensified on Friday after police fired at protesters outside the Kanchanpur DAO, demanding probe and action against those guilty of raping and murdering Nirmala.

The Bhimdutta Municipality that had remained calm until 1pm yesterday turned into a virtual battle ground after 2pm.

Kanchanpur locals stepped up protests after police presented a mentally challenged person as the main suspect. They accused police of presenting the fake suspect to protect the perpetrators.

 Body of Nirmala was found in a sugarcane field in Bhimdutta Municipality of Kanchanpur on July 27, a day after she was reported missing. Postmortem report showed the teenager had been raped and strangulated to death.