OHCHR rights watch team in Dhading

Dhading, February 22:

A team of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal reached Dhadingbesi to monitor the rights situation in the district yesterday.

The three-member team under Britta Maidson of OHCHR-Nepal is scheduled to meet the representatives of the district-based civil societies, rights organisations, journalists, conflict victims and security agencies to monitor the rights situation in the district.

The team will also investigate the killing of Kale Sharki alias Raju Nepali (30), a resident of Budhathum VDC-4, Dhodeni, Dhading, by the security forces on February 6.

A patrol team of security forces from Arughat, a Gorkha-based Security Base Camp of the Unified Security Forces, had shot Sharki at Charangephant of Budhathum VDC of the district.

“He was killed on his way to the local market with his relatives. The security forces killed Sharki after his arrest,” the villagers said, adding: “The security personnel asked others to flee the area before shooting him.” Sharki, a microbus driver, was in the district for his sister’s wedding.

Sharki’s family is having a hard time making their ends meet. “We heard sound of gunfire some five minutes after his [Kale Sharki’s] arrest. The villagers, following the lead of the security forces, found his dead body on February 7,” they said.

Different district-based rights organisations, civil society members and journalists had urged the OHCHR-Nepal and the government to investigate into Sharki’s killing. The Defence Ministry however had said that the person killed in the incident was a Maoist.