Mahendranagar, February 6, 2008

Nepali Congress lawmaker and former Minister of State for Information and Communications Dilendra Prasad Badu was critically injured when a mob led by the Maoists attacked him yesterday.

Three NC cadres, Narendra Dhami, Sher Singh Dhami and Himmat Bista, eight policemen, including sub-inspector Durga Dutta Bhatta, and five civilians, Harak Singh Dhami, Amar Singh Dhami, Kamal Singh, Rajendra Singh Dhami and Harish BK, were also injured. Badu was in Latinath VDC of Darchula district to participate in a mass meeting of the NC, which was scheduled for today.

The mob resorted to the attack when Badu was having lunch at the house of a local Dhanbir Singh Dhami. Badu and 10 others were rushed to Kathmandu on a Simrik Air helicopter at 9.30 am today. The Darchula district police office said the mob surrounded the house and hurled stones. Police opened 55 rounds of fire in the air to quell the mob.

Four policemen went out of contact after the incident. SSP at the Mahendranagar zonal police office Gopal Bhandari said a rifle, sub-inspector Bhatta’s service pistol and a communications set were looted. He added that the attack on Badu was aimed at spiking the NC’s Latinath mass meet, adding that the Maoists even set fire to some houses. Harak, who sustained bullet injury on the waist, is reported to be in a critical condition and is undergoing treatment at the Gokuleshwor-based primary health centre. The others are undergoing treatment.

Nepali agent in kidney racket identified

Kathmandu, February 6, 2008

Nepal Police said today it has identified Pankaj Jha as the Nepali agent who worked for the India-based kidney racket allegedly run by Dr Amit Kumar and his brother Jeevan Kumar.

A police official said that the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) established an indirect contact with him this morning, but he is out of contact since then. Sources said Amit Kumar (passport number Z047537) stayed in Hotel Radission, Lazimpat, on January 28.

However, the MPCD didn’t confirm it, but said he had information about his stay in the hotel in September.

According to the passport, his birth date is July 26, 1967. Meanwhile, Ramdev Pandey, ex-owner of Badrinath Guest House at Gongabu, said that an Indian named Yaspal Sharma had come to meet him before Dashain to buy his guest house. “I don’t know whether he was Amit Kumar. I heard these days he is accountant of Amit,” he said. Pandey added that Sharma had told him that he had a hospital in India and wanted to establish one in Nepal. “

He had come with a Nepali and settled the deal at Rs 1 million. He was supposed to send money before Tihar. As he did not, I sold it to somebody else,” he said.