RAUTAHAT, SEPTEMBER 25
Property worth tens of millions of rupees was damaged in Baudhimai Rural Municipality office today owing to the vandalism allegedly by a group of school students today.
According to sources, angry students of Shankar Secondary School of Baudhimai Municipality, Rautahat attacked the municipality office over what they called the rural municipality's refusal to allocate fund for their academic tour. While the angry students vandalised the official vehicle used by rural municipality Chief Pradip Yadav, other property, including window panes of municipal building, heavy equipment, two-wheelers and the likes have also been damaged.
Rautahat District Police Office Spokesperson DSP Sunil Malla said police fired nine rounds of tear gas and three rounds of bullets in the air to take the situation under control.
A few students and security personnel, including SI Sunil Kumar Yadav of Bankul Police Post, were injured in the incident. They are said to be undergoing treatment at different local health facilities in the district.
Police said they have arrested four persons involved in the vandalism. A heavy security presence has also been deployed around the school. Baudhimai Rural Municipality Chief Yadav has blamed violent elements of CPN-UML and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal for causing the incident in the name of students. "In the name of students, they launched an attack on the municipality office with spears and brickbats at about 12:00pm, though they were planning to kill me, SI Yadav saved me."
When asked if his reluctance to allocate budget for academic tour caused the vandalism, the rural municipality chief clarified that he had talked to the students earlier and convinced them that some fund would be allocated in the upcoming municipal conference.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 26, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
