​​​​​​​"The five-point agreement is nothing but a ploy to mislead the victims of the massacre"
KATHMANDU, AUGUST 9
The Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal termed the five-point deal that the home ministry reached yesterday with Gaur Massacre Victims Struggle Committee pledging to probe the people indicted in the first information reports in 2007 as a political stunt.
Earlier, during the protests in Rautahat, the Gaur Massacre Victims Struggle Committee had also demanded that a probe be conducted against JSP-N Chair Yadav.
On 21 March 2007, as many as 27 individuals associated with the then CPN-Maoist were brutally killed after clashes erupted between the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (the mother party of JSP-N) and CPN-Maoist Centre (then known as CPN-Maoist) cadres over a mass meeting venue in Gaur.
JSP-N Spokesperson Manish Kumar Suman said that the five point-deal was nothing but a ploy to mislead the victims.
He said Gaur massacre was probed by six to seven probe committees/commissions, including the committee led by then Justice of the Supreme Court Khilraj Regmi, UNMIN, and the National Human Rights Commission.
"Some probe reports were made public but some were not," he added.
Suman said seven FIRs were filed in the aftermath of the Gaur massacre and 350 people were named on flimsy grounds. Suman said if those FIRs were investigated, the probe would lead to nothing.
He said local people who were angry with JSP-N leaders and cadres named them in the FIR to exact political revenge.
Suman also said most of the probe committees that investigated the incident held the CPN-Maoist responsible for the massacre. Suman said the MJF had taken permission to hold a mass meeting at the programme venue two weeks prior to the programme, but CPN-Maoist led by Prabhu Sah also organised a mass meeting at the same programme venue.
Suman said if anybody wanted to investigate Gaur massacre after 17 years, then the best thing would be to form an all-party parliamentary committee.
"As far as I know, it was a political movement and all the people were on the street when the incident occurred. It was an accident rather than a criminal incident and if it has to be probed, then it should be probed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission," Suman said and added that nobody was interested in entrusting the TRC with the responsibility to probe the Gaur massacre. Suman said his party had taken note of the five-point deal, but the party would continue to remain a partner in the current ruling coalition.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 10, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
