Kathmandu, July 18

The Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal today issued a press release condemning the National Human Rights Commission’s probe report on the Maleth incident.

Police had opened fire on protesters on March 6, 2017, killing five persons and injuring several others. The party stated that the NHRC, which had the constitutional responsibility of protecting, probing,  and monitoring human rights issues, published  a unilateral, prejudiced and contradictory report without objectively evaluating the evidences related to the incident in which  the security personnel  indiscriminately opened fire  killing and injuring innocent people. According to the party, the NHRC’s report had diminished people’s faith in the human rights body.

Stating that multiple national and international human rights institutions, including the United Nations, have expressed their concerns about the incident, the RJP-N said the report had neither mentioned clearly about the accountability of security personnel, nor recommended any action against the perpetrators.

“Therefore, we urge the NHRC to revise its report to maintain its credibility and impartiality,” the party said in its release.

Meanwhile, Tarai Human Rights Defenders Alliance also issued a press release condemning the NHRC’s report.  “A constitutional body like the NHRC should always strive to provide justice to the victims of human rights violation, giving priority to the protection of human rights and individuals’ lives and properties, but this body failed to do that in this case,” THRD Alliance said in its release.

It said the report raised question of transparency, work efficiency and effectiveness of the NHRC.

NHRC report stated that the United Democratic Madhesi Front and the erstwhile CPN-UML were primarily responsible for the incident but even when the report ascertained that five people were killed by security personnel, the report has not held the security personnel and state agencies to account, THRD Alliance argued.