Nepal's Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) announced Thursday to suspend its strikes and protests for 10 days across southern Nepal's Terai plains in the wake of prime minister's address, local leading media group's website eKantipur reported.

"We have decided to stop our strikes and general strikes for 10 days in order to create an environment conducive for talks with the government from today," MPRF Chairman Upendra Yadav told a press conference in the capital Kathmandu Thursday.

Yadav, however, said that the peaceful demonstrations demanding the regional autonomy would continue.

"The Madhesi people have taken the prime minister's yesterday's statement as victory in Nepal's history," said Yadav, "but we are concerned that the prime minister couldn't clearly mention about the regional autonomy that we had been asking for."

Yadav asked the government to form a high-level probe commission to investigate into the killings and violence during the Terai movement.

Earlier Wednesday night, Nepal's eight political parties signed an agreement guaranteeing the Terai region representation in the constituent assembly in proportion to its population.

When addressing the nation on Wednesday, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said that the constituencies in the Terai region would be increased in proportion to its population, and the seats to be elected through a proportional representation system would also be increased accordingly.

As per the agreement, the 20 districts in the southern strip with 48.4 percent of the country's population will get 49 percent seats in the Constituent Assembly, while 51 percent seats will be divided among the 55 hilly and Himalayan districts that have 51.6 percent of the population.

The eight parties also agreed that all the groups in the country including Madhesi, dalits (the people belonging to lower caste), the indigenous, women, laborers, peasants and backward classes and regions would be included in the state organs on the basis of the principle of proportional inclusion.

The violence in the demonstrations, mainly led by MPRF since Jan. 19, has caused the deaths of more than 20 people. Many Terai towns witnessed curfews, strikes and widespread vandalism of public and private property in the unrest since then.

Madhesi people are always referred to people mainly living in southern Nepal's Terai plains with Indian origin.

Source: Xinhua