Dhangadi, April 17

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba today accused the government of shielding the guilty in the rape and murder of Nirmala Panta.

Inaugurating the Far-west Province training programme organised by Nepal National Magar Union Central Committee in Dhangadi, Deuba questioned the government’s ability to maintain law and order in the country. “The government is protecting rapists and killers. How can it maintain law and order when it is openly shielding criminals?” he asked.

Deuba slammed the government for failing to provide justice to Panta’s family. “The government is harassing and torturing people. They want to get rid of such a government,” he stated.

Deuba said Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had started seeing lathis and stones in the hands of journalists. He argued that the government was trying to gag the media.  “But, doing so will invite the downfall of the regime,” he warned. Deuba said his party was always in favour of press freedom. He argued that democracy would not prosper without press freedom.

“It would be foolhardiness to censor the press,” he warned. Stating that Magars were a special ethnic community in Nepal, Deuba said  his party was serious about its representation in politics and the government.