Dozens of students sustained injuries following a clash between student fronts of CPN UML and Maoists at Ratna Rajya College on Tuesday, while their leaders were holding talks to establish peace in the country.

The clash occurred after a disagreement on the dress code of the campus between students of the CPN-UML-aligned All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU) and the Maoist-aligned All Nepal national Free Students’ Union-Revolutionary (ANNFSU-R).

The crash erupted after pro-UML ANNFSU activists tried to stop some students affiliated to Maoists’ student wing, ANNISU-R, who entered into the college in casual dress.

Following this, pro-Maoist students led by their chairman Lekh Nath Neupane had vandalized the Free Student Union (FSU) office.

According to the president of the Free Students’ Union (FSU), RR Campus, Nawaraj Poudel, ANNISU-R supporters vandalized the FSU office in the campus and made away with some documents.

The president of ANNFSU-R, Lekhnath Neupane, meanwhile, accused the FSU secretary of the RR Campus Raj Kumar Rai of mistreating students of his organisation who were in the campus to advertise the Maoist mass meeting scheduled to take place at Open Air Theatre in Kathmandu on Friday.

Those seriously injured in the clash include Kumar Ranamagar and Min Prasad Sanjyal of ANNFSU and Bandhu Bikram Chhetri, Rajendra Baral and Subash Pokharel of ANNFSU-R. They are undergoing treatment in the Model Hospital.

Issuing a press statement ANNFSU has said, “Instead of entering into fair competitive politics by correcting their past mistakes, such an act of ANNISU (R) has substantiated the fact that it is yet to do away with the hangover of gun culture.”

Similarly, issuing a separate press statement, ANNFSU, Ratna Rajya Campus Unit has also condemned the act.

Maoists and its fraternal organizations have been continuing their excesses even if as they are trying to enter into the politics of mainstream.