Bara, August 20:

Maoists today said they had no hand in locking up officials, including the Chief District Officer of Bara, and ten journalists for three hours at Kotwali on Friday.

A group of suspected rebels and locals had locked up the officials and the scribes following a dispute over the construction of a dam in the Jamuniya river at Kotwali in Laxmipur. The group wanted the officials to change their plans and construct the dam at Chyutaha at Mahendra Adarsha VDC in the district instead.

At a press conference in Kalaiya, Maoist district secretary Jamin said that since 80 per cent of the people support the rebels, their supporters may have been involved in the incident. “The Maoist party was, however, not invloved in it,” he said.

Expressing regret over the mistreatment of journalists, Jamin said Maoists in Bara have no policy to misbehave with scribes.

Those locked up on Friday in a room of a building included CDO Bhola Prasad Siwakoti, DSP of the national investigation department Ali Akhatar Hussen, engineers Ramananda Yadav, Shivananda Chaudhari and police inspector Tirtharaj Sigdel.

The journalists included FNJ president (Parsa), Shtrughna Nepal, Sujit Mahat, Pankaj Shrestha, Ram Chhetri, Anil Tiwari, Ram Saraf, Jitendra Shah, Ramesh Tiwari, Bijaya Chauhan and Sanjaya Shah.

The officials and the scribes were on their way to the site where the dam was supposed to be constructed when the incident occurred.