Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister has temporarily reinstated a group of sacked Indian priests at the Himalayan nation's holiest Hindu Pashupatinath shrine after protests forced riot police to intervene.

 

The secular Maoists, who run the country after winning elections last year, ended centuries of tradition last week when they replaced the Indians with Nepalese priests.

 

But Nepal’s prime minister Prachanda told the national assembly late on Wednesday (7^th January) that he had ordered officials to manage normal worship at the temple by the same Indian priests for the time being.

 

Riot police were deployed at the temple on the banks of the Bagmati river in Kathmandu after local priests and their supporters launched heated protests against the Maoists.

 

The move to reinstate the Indian priests was greeted with jubilation. But the reprieve for the Indian priests appeared to be only temporary and the temple trust would soon look for replacements, the Maoist-appointed treasurer of the temple trust Ganesh Prasad Adhikari said.

 

Adhikari said the plan to replace the Indian priests was an attempt to clear up concerns about the handling of cash donations to the temple, which attracts one million pilgrims a year.

 

The proposed changes caused concern in India where L.K. Advani, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called the treatment of the Indian priests as shabby and totally unprovoked.