Himalayan News Service

Kailali, June 15:

Shocking details in yesterday’s massacre of cops’ relatives have come to light, with the security forces today claiming that the Maoists mutilated the genitals of the young wife of

a constable and disembowelled the one-year-old son of another.

In a sharply-worded press release, the Maoists have flatly denied a hand in the massacre.

All those killed were relatives of armed police force personnel. Twenty-one year-old Laxmi, wife of Keshav Shah, and her infant son Dipendra; constable Man Bahadur Singh’s 19-year-old wife Radha Devi, constable Upendra Aer’s 19-year-old wife Durga Devi, head constable Dharma BK’s relatives Prem Raj Bhul and Ganesh BK were abducted from their rented lodgings off the Mahendra highway, 50 metres distance from the armed police battalion, and killed en masse in the Chaumala jungle.

The trauma of the relatives of those killed was indescribable. Hari BK of Darchula, who reached Banbehada this morning to see his aspiring cop son Ganesh,fainted on hearing the news of his death.

After hearing that her daughter Radha had been slaughtered, Kalawati Devi was so agonised she lost consciousness. Radha’s husband, Man Bahadur, has gone into shock.

The most poignant instance was that of Keshav Shah who will never forget the sight of

his one-year-old son lying disembowelled.

Constable Upendra Aer of Dadeldhura had only recently called his wife to Banbehada on June 6 since his marriage to her two years ago. Now, she is gone forever.

The armed police force Baidhnath battalion, Attariya, has claimed the Maoists are responsible. In a statement, the Maoists’ western divisional commander Prabhakar said that his party had no hand in the killings.

All the six relatives of the APF personnel assigned to Badimalika battalion, Banbehada, were tortured brutally before being murdered, said APF brigade commander Narayan Dutt Pandey of Attariya’s Baidhnath brigade.