Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has urged the political leaders to ensure that they do not provide refuge to criminals.

He made the call to the leaders during a meeting on Sunday. Top leaders of major parties present in the meeting assured that they would take steps to discourage involvement of criminal elements in their parties, a press note issued by PM's aide Bishwodeep Pandey said.

Following the discussion with the top leaders, PM Bhattarai also held a meeting with top security officials and directed them to execute security plans without feeling any political pressure.

PM Bhattarai held discussions with the leaders and the security officials in view of the government plan to launch special security measures to deal with the security challenges in the run up to May 27 deadline to issue the new constitution. nepalnews.com