Nepalese policemen, who were injured in a deadly clash with protesters, receive treatment at Tikapur Hospital in Kailali district, some 700 km southwest of Kathmandu. 

Reuters/Kathmandu

Soldiers patrolled a small border town in Nepal's far west on Tuesday after nine people, most of them police, were killed in attacks by protesters angered by government reforms.

Authorities imposed a curfew and mobilised the army on Monday to quell protests in Tikapur in Kailali district, which is close to the border with India.

"We have sent enough troops to aid the civilian authorities to maintain law and order there," army spokesman Jagadish Chandra Pokharel said.

The rare military deployment came in response to the killing on Monday of six police officers. One was surrounded by protesters and burned to death, the government said.

The protesters, mainly from the ethnic Tharu community, oppose a plan to include their area in a hilly province, part of a regional overhaul in a new federal constitution expected to be finalised this month.

New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the government to order an impartial investigation into the deaths.

"Nepal's government is squarely to blame for its failure to engage with the local community and address its concerns, which led to the horrific escalation," said Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch. "But violent attacks on police can only be deplored."

Raj Kumar Shrestha, Kailali district administrator, said 20 police were treated for injuries after the violence.

Nepal, which emerged from a civil war in 2006, is governed under an interim constitution. Politicians are preparing a final charter with plans to split the volatile country, wedged between China and India, into seven federal provinces.