Daytime curfews were imposed on four towns in southeastern Nepal yesterday after several deaths and dozens of injuries during violent protests in the impoverished region, local officials said.

“The situation remains serious today as dozens of protesters have already attempted to defy the curfew," said local administrator Madhav Prasad Regmi from Janakpur, 375 kilometres southeast of Kathmandu.

The violent protests began last week after a 16-year-old boy was shot dead during a scuffle between Maoists and Mahadhesi activists demanding increased political representation in the Himalayan nation.

Nepali Mahadhesi community leaders have said that the ethnic group accounts for around a third of Nepal's 27 million people.

They dominate the Terai region, situated in the southern plains bordering India, and have long complained of discrimination by highland communities.

Officials in the area said at least 35 protesters were injured Thursday in Janakpur, and at least 20 more hurt in Birgunj, another of the four towns under curfew along with Biratnagar and Lahan.

Protests earlier this week left at least five protesters dead.

The leader of the group organising the protests warned that unless Nepal's government addressed their complaints, the unrest would continue.

The country has only recently seen an end to ten years of civil war with Maoist insurgents, after the rebels and coalition government signed a peace deal bringing the Maoists into parliament and government.

"If they try to ignore the issue, the protests will have dire consequences," Upendra Yadav, the chairman of the recently formed Mahadhesi Janadhikar Forum, told AFP.

Nepal's Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has called on the group to come for dialogue, and the Mahadhesi leader urged Koirala to name a date for talks.

"This movement is taking place because the people of the Terai region have always been discriminated against by the state. Even the new interim government is not addressing our problems so we are fighting for equality," Yadav told AFP.

He also complained about the new composition of the 330-seat parliament, where the Maoists now have 83 seats.

"There are only 73 Mahadhesis from various political parties in the current parliament. This percentage is very low, we want more representation," said Yadav.

The English language Nepali Times also warned in a front-page editorial that Nepal would be "falling from the frying pan into the fire" if it failed to tackle the issue.

"The root of the crisis is deep, long standing bitterness among the Mahadhesi population. Discriminated against by governments in the past, they saw that they would be denied political representation in proportion to their numbers by the interim constitution too," the paper said.

Nepal's Maoists, however, have said that pro-Royalists and militant Hindus are involved in the protests and merely trying to undermine a peace process which has left King Gyanendra and the monarchy as a whole facing the boot.

But Yadav said his group was also opposed to the monarchy.

"Where there is unrest, there can be room for someone to use the situation to their benefit. The palace may try to take advantage of this situation, but we won't let it happen because we are also against monarchy. We are not monarchists, we also want a republic," he said.