KATHMANDU, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The Dalit community in Nepal staged a sit-in protest in capital Kathmandu to draw the government's attention to a series of attacks on Dalit people, local leading news website eKantipur reported on Thursday.

    The Federation of Dalit Non-governmental Organizations said that the protest was carried out to pressurize the government to draft a new constitution supportive of Dalit views for a new Nepalalong and an inclusive state.

    Speaking at the protest assembly on Wednesday, the Dalit leaders condemned the government for failing to take action against those who inflicted torture on Dalits (people belonging to lower caste in Hindu community) and remaining silent over the exodus of around a dozen Dalit families from Surkhet district, some 375 km west of Nepali capital Kathmandu, after an inter-caste marriage.

    They said that the government failed to enforce the decision to make the country free from untouchability, though the country was declared a secular state.

    The agitating Dalits also floated a proposal to make a provision for stern action against such practices in the new constitution.

    Altogether 83 incidents of inflicting torture, chasing away and displacement caused by inter-caste marriage have been recorded after the legislative parliament declared Nepal an untouchability-free country.