A pandemonium that broke out between protesting students and bus operators in the mid-western town of Butwal Tuesday in course of protests against the recent price hike of POL products led police to open fire killing student leader Debi Ram Poudel, reports from the district said.

A dozen of them along with three college teachers were injured during attempts by police to control the protesting students who landed up in a bitter feud with the operators of microbus in course of the protests.

According to reports, the students of seven different unions who staged protests at the Mahendra park destroyed one bus and two motorcycles on their way back to the campus.

The students destroyed the vehicles while halting traffic at Mahendra Park. The microbus operators, highly angered from the students’ behavior beat up some students and teachers who were returning to the Butwal Multiple College after the protests.

No sooner had the students and teachers informed the other students about the incident, the student wings destroyed three more microbuses parked at Golpark. The police was first forced to use batons to disperse the feuding parties.

After the police failed to disperse the mob, it was forced to open fire during which student leader Poudel was killed. Poudel was student of BA third year and hailed from Bichari, Chautari in Syangja district. He was the president of Progressive Students’ Union.

The town of Butwal remained tense till late night after the death of Poudel at around 5:15 pm in the evening. According to reports the police used tear gas only after opening fire on the students. The protesting students then carried the dead body of Poudel and took him to the Lumbini hospital for postmortem. On their way to the hospital the agitated students had set fire to two police posts.

Police again fired shots into the air and used dozens of tear gas to disperse the students protesting in front of the Lumbini hospital. The seven different student bodies have protested the police intervention and the killing of a fellow student. The student bodies have also announced Butwal Bandh for an indefinite period of time.