Kathmandu, August 2

Minister of Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa today said the government would investigate security threats to lawmaker Niru Pal, who claimed to have been attacked and threatened with dire consequences on Tuesday.

After lawmakers from the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and opposition Nepali Congress lamented over the incident in the Parliament, Minister Thapa said the government was serious about the security of lawmakers. “The incident looks politically motivated,” he said, adding the government was serious about discouraging such incidents.

NC lawmakers said the government had been unable to provide security to the people. “When even lawmakers aren’t safe, how can the government provide security to the people,” said an NC lawmaker.

Speaking at the Parliament, lawmaker Pal said she was attacked on Tuesday evening by seven to eight people in Baneshwor. “They pointed a gun at me and threatened to kill me,” she said. She said she was not afraid of those people.

According to the SSP Bishwo Raj Pokharel, chief of Metropolitan Police Division, Kathmandu,  they have arrested 70 suspects in connection with the attack.