Buddhists protest against Maoist chief Prachanda

Buddhists protest against Prachanda
Photo: Niranjan Shrestha, AP
December 7, 2011 – Hundred of Buddhists demonstrated in Kathmandu today to protest Nepal government’s appointment of Maoist party chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda to head of the Lumbini development project.

A mass of nearly 500 demonstrators included Buddhist monks and nuns who were holding banners saying there should not be any political involvement in the project to develop Lumbini, the Associated Press reported.

Dahal was recently appointed head of the national committee for development of Lumbini. He is chief of the Maoist party in Nepal who fought a decade long war against the government troops that ended in 2006 killing more than 13,000 people.

Lumbini is a town located about 240 kilometers south west of Kathmandu where lord Gautam Buddha was born in 563 BCE. Nepal government is planning to develop Lumbini and make it a center of global attraction by promoting the upcoming year as Visti Lumbini Year 2012.

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