On Monday at least three protesters were shot and injured, a day after the Himalayan nation adopted its first democratic constitution, the violence diminished hopes that the historic event would put a stop to weeks of clashes.

The demonstrators are in critical condition after police opened fire at an anti-constitution protest in the city of Biratnagar, said Pramod Kharel, a deputy police superintendent in the Morang district of southern Nepal.

The three biggest forces in parliament — the Nepali Congress, UML and Maoist parties — finally reached agreement in June, spurred by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake two months earlier that killed nearly 8,900 people and destroyed around half a million homes. The new constitution is the final stage in a peace process that began when Maoist fighters laid down their arms in 2006 after a decade-long insurgency aimed at abolishing an autocratic monarchy and creating a more equal society.

President Ram Baran Yadav on Sunday promulgated Nepal’s new constitution, despite fierce opposition by minority groups in the southern plains whose homeland will be split up under the charter. It creates seven states in a secular, federal system, but is opposed by some groups who wanted to re-establish Nepal as a Hindu nation and others who feel it is unfavourable to people in the plains, near India.

More than 40 people, mostly protesters, have been killed in recent weeks in clashes over the plan.