Nepalese women take part in a protest demanding equal citizenship rights in the new constitution in Kathmandu yesterday.

DPA
Kathmandu
Two demonstrators were killed in Nepal when police opened fire at a rally in the western district of Surkhet, where residents were protesting the district’s partition under a new federal restructuring, police said.
One man died shortly after being shot while another man died later in a hospital, Surkhet police said. They added that eight others were injured in the gunfire.
Authorities imposed a curfew in Surkhet yesterday after residents stepped up their protests against the division of the far-western region under the country’s new constitution, calling for their district to be left intact.
Nepal’s major political parties - Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninists and Unified Maoist – reached agreement Sunday to create a federal system with six states, clearing a major hurdle in the constitution-drafting process.
The number of states had been a main point of contention between the parties during negotiations. The decision will be discussed by the Constituent Assembly.
Demonstrators in Surkhet also vandalised offices of the main political parties.
Protests took place in Jumla and Janakpur districts as well.
In the districts of Bara and Parsa, demonstrators demanded Nepal be called a Hindu state in the new constitution and that religious conversion be prohibited.
A national charter was one of the provisions of the 2006 peace pact signed between the government and Maoist rebels, ending a decade-long civil war that had killed more than 17,000 people.
Emergency helicopter services in quake-hit Nepal may be forced to stop within weeks due to a lack of funding, leaving almost 150,000 people without food and shelter to survive the monsoon season, the United Nations warned yesterday.
Annual monsoon rains and resulting landslides could cut off access to remote communities devastated by the two quakes which struck in April and May, making helicopters crucial for reaching them, according to the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS).
The quakes killed around 8,900 people, injured more than 22,000 and forced tens of thousands into temporary shelters.
“We have pending requests to move about 650 metric tons of emergency supplies, and new requests for the movement of cargo continue to be received daily,” said Edmondo Perrone, UNHAS logistics cluster coordinator.
“About 35 organisations are waiting for airlifts, which emphasises how desperate the need is for this service right now,” he added in a statement.
The UN helicopter service has only received half the $18mn it needs to operate until the end of October. If the shortfall is not met soon, deliveries will stop at the end of August, UNHAS said.
The service, managed by the World Food Programme, has moved more than 2,600 aid workers and 1,450 metric tons of supplies across Nepal, and delivered aid to 139 remote communities unreachable by road.
Nearly 3mn survivors - around 10% of the Himalayan nation’s population - many in mountainous, hard-to-reach areas, need shelter, food and basic medical care, according to a recent UN report.
Nepal’s government has estimated the cost of recovery at over $6.6bn over the next five years, equivalent to one third of its gross domestic product, and has so far received donor pledges worth $4.4bn.
Nepal says the disaster destroyed more than 500,000 houses and pushed 700,000 more people to poverty. Already one in four of the country’s 28mn people lives on a daily income of less than $1.25.
Nepal issued its first transgender passport yesterday in a move which rights groups hailed as a breakthrough.
Rights activist Monica Shahi became the first recipient of a passport that read ‘O’ for other instead of ‘male’ or ‘female’.
“I cannot describe my happiness today. My country has recognised and respected my identity,” the 37-year-old activist told AFP.
“My struggle was not just for myself, but for future generations. Now everyone like me can get this service.”
Nepal introduced a third gender category in January 2013 for transgender people applying for citizenship documents.
Five months later the Supreme Court ordered the government to alter gender options in passports as well.
Campaigners for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people welcomed the step.
“This recognition in the passport is the result of a long struggle and today we are proud that our country has taken this step,” said Pinky Gurung, president of Blue Diamond Society, an LGBTI rights group.
Nepal has some of the most progressive policies on homosexuality in South Asia.
Nonetheless, gay and transgender people in Nepal have long complained of discrimination and bureaucratic hurdles in obtaining legal recognition of their identity.