Kathmandu, September 22:

A five-member team including the general secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Journalist returned to Kathmandu today after releasing Harihar Singh Rathore from the custody of Royal Nepalese Army in Dailekh. Briefing the journalists about the trip at a programme organised in the capital today, Mahendra Bista, general secretary of the FNJ, said, the local administration was helpless in Dailekh as the security forces carry most of the activities in the district. Bista said the motive of the arrest of Rathore was to displace the journalists from the district as they could not be used for vested interests.

There were no journalists in Dailekh district after Rathore’s arrest and all were residing in Nepalgunj. However after the talks with the security forces, the environment has eases a little bit and the reporters were trying to return to Dailekh, he said. He also informed that Rathore was arrested with almost no proof. “The name Rathore had been found in a diary of a Maoist who was killed but there was no clear indication that it was Harihar Singh Rathore,” he said.