Rautahat, September 20:

Classes in the Kalika secondary school at Santapur Matiaun VDC Ward No 6 have been disrupted for the past two weeks after some students were gripped by hysteria. Terror has spread among the students and the teachers after around 18 students went into a frenzy and started indulging in strange activities, like talking to themselves, speaking objectionable words and sometimes screaming at the top of their lungs and fainting. Villagers there believe the students have been possessed. Most of the affected students are of grades four to ten, a local of Banbahuari, Pushkar Koirala, said. Seven girls, including Rajani Bista, Sabitri Upreti, Hasta Kumari Bhujel and Anita Budhathoki, of grade nine, and ten boys have been affected the most, he said. Rajani, a daughter of a teacher of the same school, Balaram, has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Lalitpur after she started showing signs of hysteria, Koirala, said.

Other students have been admitted to local health posts. Fearing what they think are ‘evil spirits,’ 75 per cent of the 600 students of the school have stopped attending classes. The guardians are not allowing their kids to go to school. The school was established in the year 1970. “This hysteria among the students has affected the entire village,” another local, Bishnu Upreti, said. According to him, the ‘evil spirits’ are causing the whole trouble and has possessed the students as the school is surrounded by graveyards and cremation sites.

Shamans, too, have been brought into action and have said the entire episode will be over once the dead people’s remains are exhumed and the bones extracted, Upreti said. The guardians are worried as they have spent over Rs 3000 on the shamans. The guardians are planning to shift their wards to other schools if the problem persists, Upreti said.