Mahendranagar, May 15:

The activists of Maoist aligned All Nepal Women’s Association- Revolutionary (ANWA-R) vandalised the Kanchanpur District Administration Office (DAO) today.

Eighteen of the activists of ANWA-R, who had reached the DAO to submit a memorandum about women’s rights to the CDO, were injured when the police rained batons on them after they entered the DAO forcibly, ANWA-R said. The irate women then vandalised the DAO.

“We were compelled to enter the DAO premises forcibly only after the security men didn’t let us enter even after our repeated requests and kept us out of the main gate of the office,” the Maoists’ Kanchanpur deputy in-charge Anu said.

Five rooms of the office including the cabin of CDO Netra Prasad Sharma were completely damaged. A vehicle used by CDO was also vandalised. A computer set, fax machine, telephone set, a sofa set and few chairs in CDO cabin were destroyed while the cabin of administrative officer, account section and the conference hall were also vandalised, CDO Sharma said.

The ANWA-R activists had also misbehaved with CDO Sharma. A huge number of armed and civil police personnel were deployed in Kanchanpur DAO soon after the incident.

The injured ANWA-R activists have returned home after preliminary treatment in Mahakali Zonal Hospital. The former central member of ANWA-R Pushpa Gharti, Maoists’ district deputy in-charge Anu and district chairperson of ANWA-R Sharda Chaudhari had reached the DAO along with other activists to submit a memorandum.

The regional committee of ANWA-R has called for Kanchanpur bandh tomorrow in protest of the incident. CDO Sharma termed the incident as the “height of anarchy”. “The Maoist leaders barged into DAO and vandalised it,” Sharma said.

Meanwhile, District Police Office, on the charge of their involvement in the vandalism at the office of CDO, arrested 17 Maoist cadres today.