KATHMANDU: The students from various higher secondary schools, including Jubilant College and Research Centre (JCRC), on Thursday organised a peace rally in the capital to protest the brutal killing of Khyati Shrestha, who was a student of Grade 12 in the JCRC.

Around 1,500 students took part in the procession that wound its way through the city and ended at Metropolitan Police Range (MPR), Hanumandhoka.

They also staged a sit-in before the MPR,

demanding to know whether the alleged culprit Biren Pradhan was inside the police office.

A heated argument ensued between the police and students. Some vehicles were vandalised in the melee. Tempers cooled down after Nawa Raj

Silwal, SP, MPR, Hanumandhoka, assured the students that stern action would be taken against the guilty.Meanwhile, parents and civil society members have demanded exemplary punishment for

the guilty. Sita Manandhar, 35, a resident of Naikap, is panic-stricken these days, thanks to the spate of abduction in the capital.

The mother has every reason to feel scared. Her only child, too, is a student of Class VI in the JCRC. Ditto for Pako resident Kaushalya Manandhar, who demanded capital punishment for Shrestha’s killer.

She argued that the human rights groups should not try to champion the convict’s cause. She claimed that the government should hand over the guilty to the public, who, in turn, should decide on the latter’s punishment.

Babukaji Lama, a resident of Hanuman Dhoka, opined that there should be greater cooperation between the government and the people to prevent such untoward incidents.

Madhu Sudhan Lamichhane, a resident of Tinkune, blamed the government for the sorry state of affairs. He maintained that he was

extremely particular about his children’s safety and security. “The government is weak and lacks control over the state mechanism,” he alleged.

The outrage comes in the wake of 19-year-old Khyati Shrestha’s recent murder after she was allegedly kidnapped by her tutor Biren Pradhan.

The police have also held his accomplice Merina Shakya for the crime.