KATHMANDU, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Nepal's Maoist-led coalition government invited armed rebel groups in the country's southern plains for talks and named three government negotiators, a senior cabinet minister said on Saturday. More than a dozen armed groups are fighting a low-intensity insurgency in the Himalayan nation's southern plains bordering India called Madhesh, demanding greater regional autonomy. Dozens of people have died in violence in the south since Nepal's Maoist former rebels ended their civil war and joined a peace process in 2006. They now head the coalition government after emerging as the largest group in elections for a special assembly in April. "The government has appealed to the armed groups fighting in Madhesh to come for negotiations," Communications and Information Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara told reporters. "The government wants to solve the problem through talks." Fertile Madhesh, or Terai, is home to nearly half of Nepal's 26.4 million people and is the impoverished nation's breadbasket as well as business and industrial hub. Ethnic Madheshis are culturally and linguistically closer to the Indians living across the border than those coming from Nepal's hills or mountains. They say they are discriminated against by the government dominated by the people from the hills in terms of jobs including the army, representation in parliament, judiciary and other state institutions. Mahara said government negotiations would be headed by Peace and Reconstruction Minister Janardan Sharma, a former Maoist rebel commander, and include two other cabinet ministers. There was no immediate comment from the rebel groups but media reports said they were ready for talks. As a separate goodwill gesture, the government said it would free all political prisoners and another 372 people either aged above 70 years or who had completed half their prison sentence. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Valerie Lee)
Supporters of India's ruling Congress party attend a protest march against the recent serial bomb blasts in Agartala, capital of India's northeastern state of Tripura October 3, 2008. At least two ...
