Police in Nepal on Thursday arrested 12 people demanding action over the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in the country’s South-Western region.

Nirmal Panta, a 10th grader, was found dead in a sugar-cane field in a small town four months ago.

However, police have failed to arrest the perpetrator.

“We arrested them because they were protesting in front of the president’s office.

“No one is allowed to protest in the area,’’ police officer Khagendra Prasai told newsmen.

Activists have taken to the streets in Kathmandu and several towns in the country over the last four months, staging sit-in protests and demanding justice for the teenage girl.

Police arrested dozens of people suspected of the crime, however, released them after they were found innocent.

In mid-November, the girl’s parents began an indefinite sit-in protest in Mahendranagar, near their home, however, the father had to be transported to Kathmandu after medical complaints.

Violence against women routinely occurs in the deeply patriarchal country.

According to police, over 1,500 cases of rape are reported every year in Nepal.

(dpa/NAN)