DADELDHURA: Hundreds of fake squatters, who had descended on Kailali a few days ago, with the hope of getting free land have finally seen reason and returned home, with their hopes shattered.

They converged in Kailali after the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal Squatters’ Association started capturing a forest in Dudejhari, promising land for squatters.

Even though they had their own houses and land, they were lured by the hope of getting a piece of high-priced land in the Tarai district.

The government evicted them from the forest yesterday and they returned home today.

They said Maoist cadres had reached their villages in the last week of November and asked them to come to Kailali where they would get 10 katthas of land in the forest they

were supposed to capture. They said the Maoists told them that they would get the land once the forest was captured and they involved themselves in the party’s work there.

Over 200 such fake squatters from Amargadhi Municipality and inner Tarai area of the district returned home after the government dashed cold water on their hopes by foiling the Maoist plan.

Though most of the people who were taken to Kailali by the Maoists

were from the Dalit community, they were not squatters as such. Most of them already have their land in the district.

Tara Tamrakar of Amargadhi said she went to Kailali after the Maoists came to her house to

ask her to go to Kailali

to capture the land.

“Only now, we have realized that we were given false assurances. Thank God, I returned alive,” she said, adding that over 100 families had gone to Kailali along with hers.

Another fake squatter, who refused to identify himself, said, “It’s not that we don’t have land here. When the Maoists promised that we could get land in the Tarai, we trusted them and followed them without a second thought.”

When asked why the Maoists took fake squatters to Kailali to capture the forest, the Maoists’ Seti-Mahakali in-charge Dharmendra Bastola denied the charge. Speaking over the phone, he said,

“It’s not that way. They are squatters and they had gone there voluntarily. It is only a rumour spread by the government. The government thinks that it has solved the problem by sending them back home. But it is only an illusion.”