1992 General Strike and Municipal Election
In 1992, in a situation of economic crisis and chaos, with spiralling prices as a result of implementation of changes in policy of the new Congress government, SJM and CPN(UC) stepped up their political agitation. A Joint People's Agitation Committee was set up together with the Communist Party of Nepal (Masal), the Nepal Communist League and the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist). A general strike was called for April 6.
Violent incidents began to occur on the evening ahead of the strike. The Joint People's Agitation Committee had called for a 30-minute 'lights out' in the capital, and violent erupted outside Bir Hospital when activists tried to enforce the 'lights out'. At dawn on April 6, clashes between strike activists and police outside a police station in Pulchok (Patan) left two activists dead.
Later in the day, a mass rally of the Agitation Committee at Tundikhel in the capital Kathmandu was attacked by police forces. As a result riots broke out, and the Nepal Telecommunications building was set on fire. Police opened fire at the crowd, killing several persons. The Human Rights Organisation of Nepal estimated that 14 people, including several on-lookers, had been killed in police firing.
Ahead of the elections to local bodies the year SJM formed a front together with the Nepal Workers Peasants Party, Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), Communist Party of Nepal (15 September 1949) and Nepal Communist League. SJM obtained one deputy mayor, 8 (1.34%) municipal committee seats and around 5% of the seats in the Village Development Committees.
Read more about this topic: United People's Front Of Nepal
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