Sarlahi, April 6:

Fear shrouds Malangwa, the headquarters of Sarlahi district, where rampaging Maoists last night launched their danse macabre, killing six security men and destroying all the major government offices. The mayhem that began at 9 pm lasted seven hours, instilling the fear of death in every person there.

So much so, that locals are still cowering behind the closed doors of their house, too afraid to even think of celebrating Ram Nawami or Chaite Dashain today. Malangwa folk who spent a sleepless night quaking with fear during the Maoists’ seven-hour-long attack and after, are too scared to speak their mind.

“Nobody came to buy any mutton,” said butcher Mohamad Sultan in Malangwa. Every Chaite Dashain, Sultan used to sell the meat of at least 30 goats. This nonce, he hasn’t slaughtered even one. There are simply no takers.

Proprietor of Dilip Computer Institute, Ramesh Rauniyar said his eight-year-old daughter Dipika almost threw up when the firing began at 1 am. “We ran helter-skelter and hid under the cot,” said Rauniyar.

Asha Dahal of Malangwa-8 said, “There were 20 of us crammed in a poky little room the whole night. Never had we been through such a situation,”

A security man, guarding the District Administration Office during the attack, said that the Maoists brazenly told security personnel that they had to fire hundreds of rounds to snatch rusted weapons. He added that while the Maoists did not seem to fear the army or police they greatly feared the helicopter equipped with night vision.

Civilian Suman Shrestha said a group of Maoists came to his house and kicked repeatedly at the door. When he did not open, they kept knocking on the door with the handle of a tubewell.

“We could not sleep the whole night,” said Sanjaya Gupta, owner of Durga Offset Press. He added that bullets fired from the helicoptor had damaged the wall of his house.

Scared locals confessed they had not hoped to survive the attack.