Kathmandu, June 3

Twenty-eight-year-old Khema Nanda Basyal has launched a hunger strike in Khula Manch putting forth an eleven-point demand that includes justice for his friend Gyanendra Bahadur Shahi, who was brutally beaten by police around a week ago while speaking at a public forum in Surkhet.

Shahi, is now undergoing treatment at Trauma Centre, Kathmandu.

Khema Nanda, a resident of Khareni Municipality in Butwal, said he had started the fast-untodeath strike to draw the attention of the government towards increasing corruption in the country.

Basyal launched the hunger strike mainly to protest police brutality against the general public in Surkhet a week ago.

According to Basyal, police personnel in Surkhet district had taken 10 people under control from a public forum and beat them indiscriminately.

People had gathered at a programme called by campaigners of Nepalko lagi Nepali (Nepali for Nepal) with the aim of spreading awareness against increasing corruption in the country.

Participants at the programme, who are in Kathmandu told THT that police also arrested them without any warrant. “Although many were released the same day, Gyanendra was held for a couple of days where he was beaten brutally,” they informed. Gyanendra was transferred to Trauma Centre in Kathmandu on May 30.

Khema Nandan, who works for a cleaning company in Butwal, had returned to Nepal around one-anda-half years ago from a gulf country.

Meanwhile, issuing a press release today, the National Human Right Commission has condemned the police action of taking Gyanendra Bahadur Shahi in custody without arrest warrant and torturing him in custody for speaking at a public forum in Surkhet.

The NHRC has concluded that Gyanendra was held in police custody without any arrest warrant.

“Gyanendra has suffered injuries in his leg due to police brutality while in custody,” the report stated.

NHRC also drew the attention of the government towards this matter and urged it to bear all hospital expenses, incurring during Shahi’s treatment.