KATHMANDU: A probe team of Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) said that activists of Young Communist League (YCL) — the youth wing of UCPN-Maoist — were behind the attack on Rukum-based journalist Tika Bista. A three-member mission had gone to Rukum two weeks ago to look into the incident. Ramesh Bista, treasurer of FNJ, was the coordinator of the team. FNJ member Janak Nepal and Pratap Regmi, president of Dang chapter of the FNJ were the other members. Making public a report, the team members, quoting Ramsur Budha "Birat", the Maoists' district secretary of Rukum, said, "Tika has not been assaulted as per the party's order but there were chances of involvement of our friends too. We also carried out a probe into the matter from our party. If they are found guilty, we are ready to take action against them." The report further said that the series of activities such as cutting fingers with razor, damaging the notebook and tearing the papers showed that the people involved in the attack were enraged with her. Ramesh Bista, coordinator of mission, said that the local journalists in Rukum had been traumatised after the attack on Tika. He also alleged that the security personnel were not giving priority to investigate into the case. "The delay in investigation into the incident demonstrates that they were giving ample time to the assailants to destroy the proofs," he added. Dharmendra Jha, president, FNJ, alleged that the state seemed least bothered even as Tika was brutally attacked and left to die. He urged the UCPN-Maoist to help the authorities concerned to find out the people involved. He also demanded to the Maoists to look into the cases of attack on more than a dozen journalists during their three-day general strike. He reiterated that the FNJ would be continuing with the protests until the government initiated the process of bringing the culprits involved in Tika's assault to book.