Dozens of political activists staged the torch rallies in Lalitpur.According to the local media reports, Maoist parties rallied against the Supreme Court verdict that disallowed providing mass amnesty to those facing accusations for crimes during civil war. Almost a decade has passed since the end of a civil war that pitted Maoist guerillas against the state and killed more than 17,000 people. Nepal's political parties have repeatedly missed deadlines to write the new republic's first constitution. At the heart of the dispute is disagreement over creating new provinces based on ethnicity, a move backed by the former rebels.
