In 1992, in a situation of economic crisis and chaos, with spiralling prices as a result of implementation of changes in policy of the new Congress government, SJM and CPN (UC) stepped up their political agitation.
The Joint People's Agitation Committee had called for a 30-minute lights out in the capital, and violence erupted outside Bir Hospital when activists tried to enforce the 'lights out'.
Later in the day, a mass rally of the Agitation Committee at Tundikhel in the capital Kathmandu was attacked by police forces.
The Human Rights Organisation of Nepal estimated that 14 people, including several on-lookers, had been killed in police firing.
[2] In 1994, a group led by Baburam Bhattarai and Pushpa Kamal Dahal broke away from CPN (UC) and formed a parallel CPN-UC which took the name Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in 1996.