Journalist Shot And Wounded In Nepal

Authorities said there was no evidence yet of armed groups being involved in shooting Mishra and the motive for the crime was not clear.

Unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle shot at and wounded a journalist in Nepal's restive southern plains, the latest in a series of attacks on the media, police said on Friday.

Gyanendra Raj Mishra was shot and wounded outside a sports stadium in the town of Birgunj, 70 km (45 miles) south of Kathmandu on Thursday. He worked for an independent FM radio station as a programme coordinator.

"His condition is not critical and he has returned home after treatment at a hospital," police official Shambhu Shah said.

Nepal emerged from a decade-long civil war in 2006 and is struggling to stamp out violence by small pro-autonomy armed groups and criminal gangs, especially in the southern plains.

Authorities said there was no evidence yet of armed groups being involved in shooting Mishra and the motive for the crime was not clear.

A woman reporter who worked for a local radio station in the temple town of Janakpur, also in the southern plains, was stabbed to death last month.