Kathmandu, May 22 Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa told the National Assembly that his ministry issued directives to security agencies to tighten security across the country to prevent recurrence of incident like the Panchthar massacre. Nine persons of two families were murdered in cold blood in Panchthar’s Miklajong Rural Municipality yesterday. And the person suspected to have been behind the murder committed suicide. Giving a statement of urgent public importance in the Upper House of the Parliament, Thapa said additional security personnel were deployed in Panchthar district and his ministry would step up vigilance across the country to improve security. Minister Thapa condemned the incident and urged the public to maintain calm and assist law enforcement officers investigating the Panchthar killings. Initial findings of the investigation pointed to family feud, particularly a troubled marriage as the main reason behind the perpetrator’s motive to go on a killing spree.  He said local people should be provided with psycho-social counselling service to prevent such incidents. “Locals are saying that an attempt was made sometime ago to kill the victims by mixing glass dust in the victims’ food, but the law enforcement officers  could not take any action against the perpetrators because the information was not shared with the law enforcement officers in the past,” Minister Thapa said. He said other government agencies also needed to do their part to prevent such incidents. He said the government should run awareness programmes in coordination with the Ministry  of Women, Children and Senior Citizens, Home Ministry and Ministry of Health and Population to alert people about possible crimes in their locality. Minister Thapa said a 12- year old girl of the victim’s family, who could escape the murderous rampage yesterday, was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Damak, Jhapa, and could provide crucial information regarding the rampage killer(s).  Thapa said the victim girl fractured her hand while escaping the murderous rampage and was emotionally disturbed. Government authorities were focusing on the physical and mental well-being of the girl as they were trying to extract information from her.   He said the bodies of the victims and suspected killer were sent to Dharan-based BP Koirala Institute of Health Science for post-mortem. Earlier, lawmakers Anita Devkota and Ramesh Jung Raymajhi had asked why the security agencies failed to take action in the past when attempt was made to kill the victims by mixing glass dust in their food. Lawmaker Ramprit Paswan said crimes of rape and murder were taking place in various parts of the country, but the government was not able to control them. Lawmaker Prakash Pantha wondered how one person could kill nine people. He demanded that the government launch serious investigation into the case.