Violence broke out in Nepal last night after the constituent assembly drafting a new constitution voted to maintain the secular state of the nation.
Small-scale explosions were reported in a number of churches as the protestors in the largely Hindu country were prevented from marching on parliament in protest.
No one was reported injured in the blasts that took place just after midnight local time.
Earlier a proposal by the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal to return Nepal to a Hindu state was quashed sparking the protests. Nepal was a Hindu nation for centuries until parliament declared it a secular state in 2008.
The nation has been in a state of political turmoil since the draft constitution was unveiled last month. More than 35 people have been killed in violent protests in the southern Tarai region over a proposal to expand the five regions of the country into seven provinces.
Church officials praised the decision. "Secularism is not only an issue of religion, but stands for freedom and equality within all the religions," Father Silas Bogati, the vicar general of the Apostolic Vicariate of Nepal, told ucanews.com.
Father Bogati said the decision implies that the state does not promote any one religion over another, and allows its citizens to choose their own identity and faith.
Hindus represent a large majority in Nepal, making up about 80 per cent of the population. But in recent years, secularism has become a key issue. In 2006, Nepal's monarchy was toppled and the country was later declared a secular republic.
According to Samim Ansari, coordinator of the National Muslim Struggle Alliance, minorities have long fought for equal treatment.
"One of our key demands was to declare Nepal a secular state in the new constitution and allow its citizens to freely choose any religious belief and practice without any objection," Ansari said. "Secularism is a timely and relevant demand. It is the right of every citizen to enjoy guaranteed freedom of religion."
The Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, a hard-line Hindu party and the fourth-largest in the assembly, had submitted the proposed amendment to reinstate Nepal as a Hindu state.
Madhav Bhattarai, president of the Nepal chapter of the Hindu rights organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, said the decision will "hurt the sentiments" of Nepal’s Hindu majority.
"Nepal has lost the opportunity to become the only Hindu state in the world … the decision has lost our identity," he said.
A top Vatican official has, meanwhile, abandoned plans to visit Nepal in light of the current secular troubles, ucanews.com reported.
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, was to visit Nepal from 15-19 September as part of a three-nation tour of South Asia. However, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the time is not appropriate to visit the Himalayan country, according to local news reports.
Additional reporting courtesy of ucanews.com
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